Chapter XXII: Letter IV: 'sir, (2)

[117] 'When Johnson once glanced at this _Liberal Translation of the New Testament_, and saw how Dr. Harwood had turned _Jesus wept_ into _Jesus, the Saviour of the world, burst into a flood of tears_, he contemptuously threw the book aside, exclaiming, "Puppy!" The author, Dr. Edward Harwood, is not to be confounded with Dr. Thomas Harwood, the historian of Lichfield.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 836.

[118] See an ingenious Essay on this subject by the late Dr. Moor, Greek Professor at Glasgow. BOSWELL.

[119] See _ante_, i. 6, note 2.

[120] 'Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!' _Job_ xix. 23.

[121] 'The gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully natural, that, though it will perhaps not be said of him as he says of himself, that he is "a man not easily jealous," yet we cannot but pity him, when at last we find him "perplexed in the extreme."' Johnson's _Works_, v. 178.

[122] Of Dennis's criticism of Addison's _Cato_, he says:--'He found and shewed many faults; he shewed them indeed with anger, but he found them with acuteness, such as ought to rescue his criticism from oblivion.' _Ib_. vii. 457. In a note on 'thunder rumbling from the mustard-bowl' (The _Dunciad_, ii. 226) it is said:--'Whether Mr. Dennis was the inventor of that improvement, I know not; but is certain that, being once at a tragedy of a new author, he fell into a great passion at hearing some, and cried, "S'death! that is _my_ thunder."' See D'Israeli's _Calamities of Authors_, i. 135, for an amplification of this story.

[123] Sir James Mackintosh thought Cumberland was meant. I am now satisfied that it was Arthur Murphy. CROKER. The fact that Murphy's name is found close to the story renders it more likely that Mr. Croker is right.

[124] 'Obscenity and impiety,' Johnson boasted in the last year of his life, 'have always been repressed in my company.' _Post_, June 11, 1784. See also _post_, Sept. 22, 1777.

[125] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 18.

[126] See _ib_. Aug. 15.

[127] See _post_, April 28, 29, 1778.

[128] See _ante_, Jan. 21, 1775, note.

[129] See _post_, April 28, 1778. That he did not always scorn to drink when in company is shewn by what he said on April 7, 1778:--'I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worse for it. University College has witnessed this.'

[130] _Copy_ is _manuscript for printing_.

[131] In _The Rambler_, No. 134, he describes how he had sat deliberating on the subject for that day's paper, 'till at last I was awakened from this dream of study by a summons from the press; the time was now come for which I had been thus negligently purposing to provide, and, however dubious or sluggish, I was now necessitated to write. To a writer whose design is so comprehensive and miscellaneous that he may accommodate himself with a topick from every scene of life, or view of nature, it is no great aggravation of his task to be obliged to a sudden composition.' See _ante_, i. 203.

[132] See _ante_, i. 428.

[133] We have here an involuntary testimony to the excellence of this admirable writer, to whom we have seen that Dr. Johnson _directly_ allowed so little merit. BOSWELL. 'Fielding's Amelia was the most pleasing heroine of all the romances,' he said; 'but that vile broken nose never cured [_Amelia_, bk. ii. ch. 1] ruined the sale of perhaps the only book, which being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 221. Mrs. Carter, soon after the publication of _Amelia_, wrote (_Corres_. ii. 71):--'Methinks I long to engage you on the side of this poor unfortunate book, which I am told the fine folks are unanimous in pronouncing to be very sad stuff.' See _ante_, ii. 49.

[134] Horace Walpole wrote, on Dec, 21, 1775 (_Letters_, vi. 298):-- 'Mr. Cumberland has written an _Ode_, as he modestly calls it, in praise of Gray's _Odes_; charitably no doubt to make the latter taken notice of. Garrick read it the other night at Mr. Beauclerk's, who comprehended so little what it was about, that he desired Garrick to read it backwards, and try if it would not be equally good; he did, and it was.' It was to this reading backwards that Dean Barnard alludes in his verses--

'The art of pleasing, teach me, Garrick; Thou who reversest odes Pindaric, A second time read o'er.'

See _post_, under May 8, 1781.

[135] Mr. Romney, the painter, who has now deservedly established a high reputation. BOSWELL. Cumberland (_Memoirs_, i. 384) dedicated his _Odes_ to him, shortly after 'he had returned from pursuing his studies at Rome.' 'A curious work might be written,' says Mr. Croker, 'on the reputation of painters. Hayley dedicated his lyre (such as it was) to Romney. What is a picture of Romney now worth?' The wheel is come full circle, and Mr. Croker's note is as curious as the work that he suggests.

[136] Page 32 of this vol. BOSWELL.

[137] Thurlow.

[138] Wedderburne. Boswell wrote to Temple on May 1:--'Luckily Dr. Taylor has begged of Dr. Johnson to come to London, to assist him in some interesting business, and Johnson loves much to be so consulted and so comes up.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 234. On the 14th Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Mr. Wedderburne has given his opinion today directly against us. He thinks of the claim much as I think.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 323. In _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 423, in a letter from Johnson to Taylor, this business is mentioned.

[139] Goldsmith wrote in 1762:--'Upon a stranger's arrival at Bath he is welcomed by a peal of the Abbey bells, and in the next place by the voice and music of the city waits.' Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 57. In _Humphry Clinker_ (published in 1771), in the Letter of April 24, we read that there was 'a peal of the Abbey bells for the honour of Mr. Bullock, an eminent cow-keeper of Tottenham, who had just arrived at Bath to drink the waters for indigestion.' The town waits are also mentioned. The season was not far from its close when Boswell arrived. Melford, in _Humphry Clinker_, wrote from Bath on May 17:--'The music and entertainments of Bath are over for this season; and all our gay birds of passage have taken their flight to Bristol-well [Clifton], Tunbridge, Brighthelmstone, Scarborough, Harrowgate, &c. Not a soul is seen in this place, but a few broken-winded parsons, waddling like so many crows along the North Parade.' Boswell had soon to return to London 'to eat commons in the Inner Temple.' Delighted with Bath, and apparently pleasing himself with the thought of a brilliant career at the Bar, he wrote to Temple, 'Quin said, "Bath was the cradle of age, and a fine slope to the grave." Were I a Baron of the Exchequer and you a Dean, how well could we pass some time there!' _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 231, 234.

[140] To the rooms! and their only son dead three days over one month!

'That it should come to this! But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two.'

_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2.

[141] No doubt Mr. Burke. See _ante_, April 15, 1773, and under Oct. 1, 1774, note, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 15.

[142] Mr. E.J. Payne, criticising this passage, says:--'It is certain that Burke never thought he was deserting any principle of his own in joining the Rockinghams.' Payne's _Burke_, i. xvii.

[143] No doubt Mrs. Macaulay. See _ante_, i. 447. 'Being asked whether he had read Mrs. Macaulay's second volume of the _History of England_, "No, Sir," says he, "nor her first neither."' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 205.

[144] 'Of this distinguished Epilogue the reputed author was the wretched Budgel, whom Addison used to denominate "the man who calls me cousin" [Spence's _Anecdotes_, ed. 1820, p. 161]; and when he was asked how such a silly fellow could write so well, replied, "The Epilogue was quite another thing when I saw it first." [_Ib_. p. 257.] It was known in Tonson's family, and told to Garrick, that Addison was himself the author of it, and that, when it had been at first printed with his name, he came early in the morning, before the copies were distributed, and ordered it to be given to Budgel, that it might add weight to the solicitation which he was then making for a place.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 389. See _ante_, i. 181.

[145] See _post_, Jan. 20, 1782.

[146] On May 10, 1768, on which day the new parliament met, a great body of people gathered round the King's Bench prison in St. George's Fields in expectation that Wilkes would go thence to the House of Commons. Some kind of a riot arose, a proclamation was made in the terms of the Riot-Act, and the soldiers firing by order of Justice Gillam, killed five or six on the spot. The justice and one of the soldiers were on the coroner's inquest brought in guilty of wilful murder, and two other soldiers of aiding and abetting therein. With great difficulty the prisoners were saved from the rage of the populace. They were all acquitted however. At Gillam's trial the judge ruled in his favour, so that the case did not go to the jury. Of the trial of one of the soldiers 'no account was allowed to be published by authority.' _Ann. Reg_. 1768, pp. 108-9, 112, 136-8, 233. Professor Dicey (_Law of the Constitution_, p. 308) points out that 'the position of a soldier may be both in theory and practice, a difficult one. He may, as it has been well said, be liable to be shot by a court-martial if he disobeys an order, and to be hanged by a judge and jury if he obeys it.' The remembrance of these cases was perhaps the cause of the feebleness shewn in the Gordon Riots in June 1780. Dr. Franklin wrote from London on May 14, 1768 (_Memoirs_, iii. 315):--'Even this capital is now a daily scene of lawless riot. Mobs patrolling the streets at noon-day, some knocking all down that will not roar for Wilkes and liberty; courts of justice afraid to give judgment against him; coal-heavers and porters pulling down the houses of coal-merchants that refuse to give them more wages; sawyers destroying saw-mills; sailors unrigging all the outward-bound ships, and suffering none to sail till merchants agree to raise their pay; watermen destroying private boats, and threatening bridges; soldiers firing among the mobs and killing men, women, and children.' 'While I am writing,' he adds (_ib_. p. 316), 'a great mob of coal-porters fill the street, carrying a wretch of their business upon poles to be ducked for working at the old wages.' See also _ib_. p. 402. Hume agreed with Johnson about the 'imbecility' of the government; but he drew from it different conclusions. He wrote on Oct. 27, 1775, about the addresses to the King:--'I wish they would advise him first to punish those insolent rascals in London and Middlesex, who daily insult him and the whole legislature, before he thinks of America. Ask him, how he can expect that a form of government will maintain an authority at 3000 miles' distance, when it cannot make itself be respected, or even be treated with common decency, at home.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 479. On the 30th of this month of April--four days after the conversation in the text--John Home recorded:--'Mr. Hume cannot give any reason for the incapacity and want of genius, civil and military, which marks this period.' _Ib_. p. 503.

[147] See _Dr. Johnson, His Friends, &c_., p. 252.

[148] It was published in 1743.

[149] I am sorry that there are no memoirs of the Reverend Robert Blair, the author of this poem. He was the representative of the ancient family of Blair, of Blair, in Ayrshire, but the estate had descended to a female, and afterwards passed to the son of her husband by another marriage. He was minister of the parish of Athelstanford, where Mr. John Home was his successor; so that it may truely be called classick ground. His son, who is of the same name, and a man eminent for talents and learning, is now, with universal approbation, Solicitor-General of Scotland. BOSWELL. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 94) describes Blair 'as so austere and void of urbanity as to make him quite disagreeable to young people.'

[150] In 1775 Mrs. Montagu gave Mrs. Williams a small annuity. Croker's _Boswell_, pp. 458, 739. Miss Burney wrote of her:--'Allowing a little for parade and ostentation, which her power in wealth and rank in literature offer some excuse for, her conversation is very agreeable.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 325. See _post_, April 7, 1778, note.

[151]

'Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.'

Pope, _Sat. Ep_. i. 135.

[152] Johnson refers to Jenyns's _View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion_, published this spring. See _post_, April 15, 1778. Jenyns had changed his view, for in his _Origin of Evil_ he said, in a passage quoted with applause by Johnson (_Works_, vi. 69), that 'it is observable that he who best knows our formation has trusted no one thing of importance to our reason or virtue; he trusts to our vanity or compassion for our bounty to others.'

[153] Mr. Langton is certainly meant. It is strange how often his mode of living was discussed by Johnson and Boswell. See _post_, Nov. 16, 1776, July 22, and Sept. 22, 1777, March 18, April 17, 18, and 20, May 12, and July 3, 1778.

[154] Baretti made a brutal attack on Mrs. Piozzi in the _European Mag_. for 1788, xiii. 313, 393, and xiv. 89. He calls her 'the frontless female, who goes now by the mean appellation of Piozzi; La Piozzi, as my fiddling countrymen term her; who has dwindled down into the contemptible wife of her daughter's singing-master.' His excuse was the attacks made on him by her in the correspondence just published between herself and Johnson (see _Piozzi Letters_, i. 277, 319). He suspected her, and perhaps with reason, of altering some of these letters. Other writers beside Baretti attacked her. To use Lord Macaulay's words, grossly exaggerated though they are, 'She fled from the laughter and hisses of her countrymen and countrywomen to a land where she was unknown.' Macaulay's _Writings and Speeches_, ed. 1871, p. 393. According to Dr. T. Campbell (_Diary_, p. 33) Baretti flattered Mrs. Thrale to her face. 'Talking as we were at tea of the magnitude of the beer vessels, Baretti said there was one thing in Mr. Thrale's house still more extraordinary; meaning his wife. She gulped the pill very prettily--so much for Baretti.' See _post_, Dec. 21, 1776.

[155] Likely enough Boswell himself. On three other occasions he mentions Otaheité; _ante_, May 7, 1773, _post_, June 15, 1784 and in his _Hebrides_, Sept. 23, 1773. He was fond of praising savage life. See _ante_, ii. 73.

[156] Chatterton said that he had found in a chest in St. Mary Redcliffe Church manuscript poems by Canynge, a merchant of Bristol in the fifteenth century, and a friend of his, Thomas Rowley. He gave some of these manuscripts to George Catcot, a pewterer of Bristol, who communicated them to Mr. Barret, who was writing a History of Bristol. Rose's _Biog. Dict_. vi. 256.

[157] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22.

[158] See _ante_, i. 396.

[159] 'Artificially. Artfully; with skill.' Johnson's _dictionary_.

[160] Mr. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Warton, Mr. Malone. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on May 16:--'Steevens seems to be connected with Tyrwhitt in publishing Chatterton's poems; he came very anxiously to know the result of our inquiries, and though he says he always thought them forged, is not well pleased to find us so fully convinced.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 326.

[161] Catcot had been anticipated by Smith the weaver (2 _Henry VI_. iv. 2)--'Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks are alive at this day to testify it; therefore deny it not.'

[162] Horace Walpole says (_Works_, iv. 224) that when he was 'dining at the Royal Academy, Dr. Goldsmith drew the attention of the company with an account of a marvellous treasure of ancient poems lately discovered at Bristol, and expressed enthusiastic belief in them; for which he was laughed at by Dr. Johnson, who was present.... You may imagine we did not at all agree in the measure of our faith; but though his credulity diverted me, my mirth was soon dashed; for, on asking about Chatterton, he told me he had been in London, and had destroyed himself.'

[163] Boswell returned a few days earlier. On May 1 he wrote to Temple: --'Luckily Dr. Taylor has begged of Dr. Johnson to come to London, to assist him in some interesting business; and Johnson loves much to be so consulted, and so comes up. I am now at General Paoli's, quite easy and gay, after my journey; not wearied in body or dissipated in mind. I have lodgings in Gerrard Street, where cards are left to me; but I lie at the General's, whose attention to me is beautiful.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 234. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on May 6:--'Tomorrow I am to dine, as I did yesterday, with Dr. Taylor. On Wednesday I am to dine with Oglethorpe; and on Thursday with Paoli. He that sees before him to his third dinner has a long prospect.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 320.

[164] See _ante_, May 12, 1775.

[165] In the _Dramatis Personæ_ of the play are 'Aimwell and Archer, two gentlemen of broken fortunes, the first as master, and the second as servant.' See _ante_, March 23, 1776, for Garrick's opinion of Johnson's 'taste in theatrical merit.'

[166] Johnson is speaking of the _Respublicæ Elzevirianæ_, either 36 or 62 volumes. 'It depends on every collector what and how much he will admit.' Ebert's _Bibl. Dict_. iii. 1571. See _ante_, ii. 7.

[167] See _post_, under Oct. 20, 1784, for 'the learned pig.'

[168] In the first edition Mme. de Sévigné's name is printed Sevigné, in the second Sevigé, in the third Sevigne. Authors and compositors last century troubled themselves little about French words.

[169] Milton had put the same complaint into Adam's mouth:--

'Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? ... ... As my will Concurred not to my being,' &c.

_Paradise Lost_, x. 743.

[170] See _ante_, April 10, 1775.

[171] Fielding in the _Covent Garden Journal_ for June 2, 1752 (_Works_, x. 80), says of the difficulty of admission at the hospitals:--'The properest objects (those I mean who are most wretched and friendless) may as well aspire at a place at Court as at a place in the Hospital.'

[172] 'We were talking of Dr. Barnard, the Provost of Eton. "He was the only man," says Mr. Johnson quite seriously, "that did justice to my good breeding; and you may observe that I am well-bred to a degree of needless scrupulosity. No man," continued he, not observing the amazement of his hearers, "no man is so cautious not to interrupt another; no man thinks it so necessary to appear attentive when others are speaking; no man so steadily refuses preference on himself, or so willingly bestows it on another, as I do; no man holds so strongly as I do the necessity of ceremony, and the ill effects which follow the breach of it; yet people think me rude; but Barnard did me justice."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 36. On p. 258, Mrs. Piozzi writes:--'No one was indeed so attentive not to offend in all such sort of things as Dr. Johnson; nor so careful to maintain the ceremonies of life; and though he told Mr. Thrale once, that he had never sought to please till past thirty years old, considering the matter as hopeless, he had been always studious not to make enemies by apparent preference of himself.' See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 27, 1773, where Johnson said:--'Sir, I look upon myself as a very polite man.'

[173] The younger Colman in his boyhood met Johnson and Gibbon. 'Johnson was in his rusty brown and his black worsteds, and Gibbon in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. He condescended, once or twice in the course of the evening, to talk with me;--the great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to the capacity of the boy; but it was done more sua [sic]; still his mannerism prevailed; still he tapped his snuff-box; still he smirked, and smiled, and rounded his periods with the same air of good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men. His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole, nearly in the centre of his visage.' _Random Records_, i. 121.

[174] Samuel Sharp's _Letters from Italy_ were published in 1766. See _ante_, ii. 57, note 2, for Baretti's reply to them.

[175] It may be observed, that Mr. Malone, in his very valuable edition of Shakspeare, has fully vindicated Dr. Johnson from the idle censures which the first of these notes has given rise to. The interpretation of the other passage, which Dr. Johnson allows to be _disputable_, he has clearly shown to be erroneous. BOSWELL. The first note is on the line in _Hamlet_, act v. sc. 2--

'And many such like as's of great charge.'

Johnson says:--'A quibble is intended between _as_ the conditional particle, and _ass_ the beast of burthen.' On this note Steevens remarked:--'Shakespeare has so many quibbles of his own to answer for, that there are those who think it hard he should be charged with others which perhaps he never thought of.' The second note is on the opening of Hamlet's soliloquy in act iii. sc. i. The line--

'To be, or not to be, that is the question,'

is thus paraphrased by Johnson:--'Before I can form any rational scheme of action under this pressure of distress, it is necessary to decide whether, after our present state, we are to be or not to be.'

[176] See _post_, March 30, April 14 and 15, 1778, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 25.

[177] Wesley wrote on Jan. 21, 1767 (_Journal_, iii. 263):--'I had a conversation with an ingenious man who proved to a demonstration that it was the duty of every man that could to be "clothed in purple and fine linen," and to "fare sumptuously every day;" and that he would do abundantly more good hereby than he could do by "feeding the hungry and clothing the naked." O the depth of human understanding! What may not a man believe if he will?' Much the same argument Johnson, thirty-three years earlier, had introduced in one of his _Debates_ (_Works_, xi. 349). He makes one of the speakers say:--'Our expenses are not all equally destructive; some, though the method of raising them be vexatious and oppressive, do not much impoverish the nation, because they are refunded by the extravagance and luxury of those who are retained in the pay of the court.' See _post_, March 23, 1783. The whole argument is nothing but Mandeville's doctrine of 'private vices, public benefits.' See _post_, April 15, 1778.

[178] See _ante_, iii. 24.

[179] Johnson no doubt refers to Walpole in the following passage (_Works_, viii. l37):--'Of one particular person, who has been at one time so popular as to be generally esteemed, and at another so formidable as to be universally detested, Mr. Savage observed that his acquisitions had been small, or that his capacity was narrow, and that the whole range of his mind was from obscenity to politicks, and from politicks to obscenity.' This passage is a curious comment on Pope's lines on Sir Robert--

'Seen him I have, but in his happier hour Of social pleasure, ill-exchanged for power.'

_Epilogue to the Satires_, i. 29.

[180] Most likely Boswell himself. See _ante_, March 25, 1776, and _post_, April 10, 1778, for Johnson's dislike of questioning. See also _ante_, ii. 84, note 3.

[181] See _ante_, April 14, 1775.

[182] See _ante_, May 12, 1774.

[183] A Gallicism, which has it appears, with so many others, become vernacular in Scotland. The French call a pulpit, _la chaire de vérité_. CROKER.

[184] As a proof of Dr. Johnson's extraordinary powers of composition, it appears from the original manuscript of this excellent dissertation, of which he dictated the first eight paragraphs on the 10th of May, and the remainder on the 13th, that there are in the whole only seven corrections, or rather variations, and those not considerable. Such were at once the vigorous and accurate emanations of his mind. BOSWELL.

[185] It is curious to observe that Lord Thurlow has here, perhaps in compliment to North Britain, made use of a term of the Scotch Law, which to an English reader may require explanation. To _qualify_ a wrong, is to point out and establish it. BOSWELL.

[186]

'Quaeque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui.'

'Which thing myself unhappy did behold, Yea, and was no small part thereof.'

Morris, _Aeneids_, ii. 5.

[187] In the year 1770, in _The False Alarm_, Johnson attacked Wilkes with more than 'some asperity.' 'The character of the man,' he wrote, 'I have no purpose to delineate. Lampoon itself would disdain to speak ill of him, of whom no man speaks well.' He called him 'a retailer of sedition and obscenity;' and he said:--'We are now disputing ... whether Middlesex shall be represented, or not, by a criminal from a gaol.' _Works_, vi. 156, 169, 177. In _The North Briton_, No. xii, Wilkes, quoting Johnson's definition of a pensioner, asks:--'Is the said Mr. Johnson a _dependant_? or is he _a slave of state, hired by a stipend to obey his master_? There is, according to him, no alternative.--As Mr. Johnson has, I think, failed in this account, may I, after so great an authority, venture at a short definition of so intricate a word? A _pension_ then I would call _a gratuity during the pleasure of the Prince for services performed, or expected to be performed, to himself, or to the state_. Let us consider the celebrated Mr. _Johnson_, and a few other late pensioners in this light.'

[188] Boswell, in his _Letter to the People of Scotland_ (p. 70), mentions 'my old classical companion, Wilkes;' and adds, 'with whom I pray you to excuse my keeping company, he is so pleasant.'

[189] When Johnson was going to Auchinleck, Boswell begged him, in talking with his father, 'to avoid three topicks as to which they differed very widely; whiggism, presbyterianism, and--Sir John Pringle.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov 2, 1773. See also _ib_. Aug 24. 'Pringle was President of the Royal Society--"who sat in Newton's chair, And wonder'd how the devil he got there."' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 165. He was one of Franklin's friends (Franklin's _Memoirs_ iii. III), and so was likely to be uncongenial to Johnson.

[190] No 22. CROKER. At this house 'Johnson owned that he always found a good dinner.' _Post_, April 15, 1778.

[191] This has been circulated as if actually said by Johnson; when the truth is, it was only _supposed_ by me. BOSWELL.

[192] 'Don't let them be _patriots_,' he said to Mr. Hoole, when he asked him to collect a city Club. _Post_, April 6, 1781.

[193] See p. 7 of this volume. BOSWELL.

[194] 'Indifferent in his choice to sleep or die.' Addison's _Cato_, act v. sc. 1.

[195] See _ante_, i. 485.

[196] He was at this time 'employed by Congress as a private and confidential agent in England.' Dr. Franklin had arranged for letters to be sent to him, not by post but by private hand, under cover to his brother, Mr. Alderman Lee. Franklin's _Memoirs_, ii. 42, and iii. 415.

[197] When Wilkes the year before, during his mayoralty, had presented An Address, 'the King himself owned he had never seen so well-bred a Lord Mayor.' Walpole's _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 484.

[198] Johnson's _London, a Poem_, v. 145. BOSWELL--

'How when competitors like these contend, Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend.'

[199] See _ante_, ii. 154.

[200] Johnson had said much the same at a dinner in Edinburgh. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10, 1773. See _ante_, March 15, 1776, and _post_, Sept. 21, 1777.

[201] 'To convince any man against his will is hard, but to please him against his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities.' _The Rambler_, No. 93.

[202] Foote told me that Johnson said of him, 'For loud obstreperous broadfaced mirth, I know not his equal.' BOSWELL.

[203] In Farquhar's _Beaux-Stratagem_, Scrub thus describes his duties: --'Of a Monday I drive the coach, of a Tuesday I drive the plough, on Wednesday I follow the hounds, a Thursday I dun the tenants, on Friday I go to market, on Saturday I draw warrants, and a Sunday I draw beer.' Act iii. sc. 3.

[204] See _ante_, i. 393, note 1.

[205] See _post_, April 10, 1778, and April 24, 1779.

[206] See _ante_, i. 216, note 2.

[207] See _ante_, March 20, 1776, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22.

[208] Dryden had been dead but thirty-six years when Johnson came to London.

[209] 'Owen MacSwinny, a buffoon; formerly director of the play-house.' Horace Walpole, _Letters_, i. 118. Walpole records one of his puns. 'Old Horace' had left the House of Commons to fight a duel, and at once 'returned, and was so little moved as to speak immediately upon the _Cambrick Bill_, which made Swinny say, "That it was a sign he was not _ruffled_."' _Ib_. p. 233. See also, _ib_. vi. 373 for one of his stories.

[210] A more amusing version of the story, is in _Johnsoniana_ (ed. 1836, p. 413) on the authority of Mr. Fowke. '"So Sir," said Johnson to Cibber, "I find you know [knew?] Mr. Dryden?" "Know him? O Lord! I was as well acquainted with him as if he had been my own brother." "Then you can tell me some anecdotes of him?" "O yes, a thousand! Why we used to meet him continually at a club at Button's. I remember as well as if it were but yesterday, that when he came into the room in winter time, he used to go and sit by the fire in one corner; and in summer time he would always go and sit in the window." "Thus, Sir," said Johnson, "what with the corner of the fire in winter and the window in summer, you see that I got _much_ information from Cibber of the manners and habits of Dryden.'" Johnson gives, in his _Life of Dryden_ (_Works_, vii. 300), the information that he got from Swinney and Cibber. Dr. Warton, who had written on Pope, found in one of the poet's female-cousins a still more ignorant survivor. 'He had been taught to believe that she could furnish him with valuable information. Incited by all that eagerness which characterised him, he sat close to her, and enquired her consanguinity to Pope. "Pray, Sir," said she, "did not you write a book about my cousin Pope?" "Yes, madam." "They tell me t'was vastly clever. He wrote a great many plays, did not he?" "I have heard of only one attempt, Madam." "Oh no, I beg your pardon; that was Mr. Shakespeare; I always confound them."' Wooll's _Warton_, p. 394.

[211] Johnson told Malone that 'Cibber was much more ignorant even of matters relating to his own profession than he could well have conceived any man to be who had lived nearly sixty years with players, authors, and the most celebrated characters of the age.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 95. See _ante_, ii. 92.

[212] 'There are few,' wrote Goldsmith, 'who do not prefer a page of Montaigne or Colley Cibber, who candidly tell us what they thought of the world, and the world thought of them, to the more stately memoirs and transactions of Europe.' Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 43.

[213] _Essay on Criticism_, i. 66.

[214] 'Cibber wrote as bad Odes (as Garrick), but then Gibber wrote _The Careless Husband_, and his own _Life_, which both deserve immortality.' Walpole's _Letters_, v. 197. Pope (_Imitations of Horace_, II. i. 90), says:--

'All this may be; the people's voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God. To Gammer Gurton if it give the bays, And yet deny _The Careless Husband_ praise, Or say our fathers never broke a rule; Why then, I say, the public is a fool.'

See _ante_, April 6, 1775.

[215] See page 402 of vol. i. BOSWELL.

[216] Milton's _L'Allegro_, 1. 36.

[217] 'CATESBY. My Liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken. RICHARD. Off with his head. So much for Buckingham.' Colley Gibber's _Richard III_, iv. I.

[218] _Ars Poetica, i. 128.

[219] My very pleasant friend himself, as well as others _who remember old stories_, will no doubt be surprised, when I observe that _John Wilkes_ here shews himself to be of the WARBURTONIAN SCHOOL. It is nevertheless true, as appears from Dr. Hurd the Bishop of Worcester's very elegant commentary and notes on the '_Epistola ad Pisones_.'

It is necessary to a fair consideration of the question, that the whole passage in which the words occur should be kept in view:

'Si quid inexpertum scenae committis, et audes Personam formare novam, servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet. Difficile est propriè communia dicere: tuque Rectiùs Iliacum carmen deducis in actus, Quàm si proferres ignota indictaque primus, Publica materies privati juris erit, si Non circa vilem patulumque moraberis orbem, Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus Interpres; nee desilies imitator in artum Unde pedem proferre pudor vetat aut operis lex.'

The 'Commentary' thus illustrates it: 'But the formation of quite _new characters_ is a work of great difficulty and hazard. For here there is no generally received and fixed _archetype_ to work after, but every one _judges_ of common right, according to the extent and comprehension of his own idea; therefore he advises to labour and refit _old characters and subjects_, particularly those made known and authorised by the practice of Homer and the Epick writers.'

The 'Note' is,

'_Difficile_ EST PROPRIE COMMUNIA DICERE.' Lambin's Comment is, '_Communia hoc loco appellat Horatius argumenta fabularum à nullo adhuc tractata: et ita, quae cuivis exposita sunt et in medio quodammodo posita, quasi vacua et à nemine occupata_.' And that this is the true meaning of _communia_ is evidently fixed by the words _ignota indictaque_, which are explanatory of it; so that the sense given it in the commentary is unquestionably the right one. Yet, notwithstanding the clearness of the case, a late critick has this strange passage: '_Difficile quidem esse propriè communia dicere, hoc est, materiam vulgarem, notam et è medio petitam, ita immutare atque exornare, ut nova et scriptori propria videatur, ultra concedimus; et maximi procul dubio ponderis ista est observatio. Sed omnibus utrinque collatis, et tum difficilis, tum venusti, tam judicii quam ingenii ratione habitá, major videtur esse gloria fabulam formare penitùs novam, quàm veterem, utcunque mutatam, de novo exhibere_. (Poet. Prael. v. ii. p. 164.) Where, having first put a wrong construction on the word _comnmnia_, he employs it to introduce an impertinent criticism. For where does the poet prefer the glory of refitting _old_ subjects to that of inventing new ones? The contrary is implied in what he urges about the superiour difficulty of the latter, from which he dissuades his countrymen, only in respect of their abilities and inexperience in these matters; and in order to cultivate in them, which is the main view of the Epistle, a spirit of correctness, by sending them to the old subjects, treated by the Greek writers.'

For my own part (with all deference for Dr. Hurd, who thinks the _case clear_,) I consider the passage, '_Difficile est propriè communia dicere_,' to be a _crux_ for the criticks on Horace.

The explication which My Lord of Worcester treats with so much contempt, is nevertheless countenanced by authority which I find quoted by the learned Baxter in his edition of Horace: '_Difficile est propriè communia dicere_, h.e. res vulgares disertis verbis enarrare, vel humile thema cum dignitate tractare. _Difficile est communes res propriis explicare verbis_. Vet. Schol.' I was much disappointed to find that the great critick, Dr. Bentley, has no note upon this very difficult passage, as from his vigorous and illuminated mind I should have expected to receive more satisfaction than I have yet had.

_Sanadon_ thus treats of it: '_Propriè communia dicere; c'est à dire, qu'il n'est pas aisé de former à ces personnages d'imagination, des caractêres particuliers et cependant vraisemblables. Comme l'on a eté le maitre de les former tels qu'on a voulu, les fautes que l'on fait en cela sont moins pardonnables. C'est pourquoi Horace conseille de prendre toujours des sujets connus tels que sont par exemple ceux que l'on peut tirer des poèmes d'Homere_.'

And _Dacier_ observes upon it, '_Apres avoir marqué les deux qualités qu'il faut donner aux personnages qu'on invente, il conseille aux Poêtes tragiques, de n'user pas trop facilement de cette liberté quils ont d'en inventer, car il est três difficile de reussir dans ces nouveaux caractêres. Il est mal aisé, dit Horace_, de traiter proprement, _c'st à dire_ convenablement, _des_ sujets communs; _c'est à dire, des sujets inventés, et qui n'ont aucun fondement ni dans l'Histoire ni dans la Fable; et il les appelle_ communs, _parce qu'ils sont en disposition à tout le monde, et que tout le monde a le droit de les inventer, et qu'ils sont, comme on dit, au premier occupant_.' See his observations at large on this expression and the following.

After all, I cannot help entertaining some doubt whether the words, _Difficile est propriè communia dicere_, may not have been thrown in by Horace to form a _separate_ article in a 'choice of difficulties' which a poet has to encounter, who chooses a new subject; in which case it must be uncertain which of the various explanations is the true one, and every reader has a right to decide as it may strike his own fancy. And even should the words be understood as they generally are, to be connected both with what goes before and what comes after, the exact sense cannot be absolutely ascertained; for instance, whether _propriè_ is meant to signify _in an appropriated manner_, as Dr. Johnson here understands it, or, as it is often used by Cicero, _with propriety_, or _elegantly_. In short, it is a rare instance of a defect in perspicuity in an admirable writer, who with almost every species of excellence, is peculiarly remarkable for that quality. The length of this note perhaps requires an apology. Many of my readers, I doubt not, will admit that a critical discussion of a passage in a favourite classick is very engaging. BOSWELL. Boswell's French in this tedious note is left as he printed it.

[220] Johnson, after describing Settle's attack on Dryden, continues (_Works_, vii. 277):--'Such are the revolutions of fame, or such is the prevalence of fashion, that the man whose works have not yet been thought to deserve the care of collecting them, who died forgotten in an hospital, and whose latter years were spent in contriving shows for fairs ... might with truth have had inscribed upon his stone:--

"Here lies the Rival and Antagonist of Dryden."'

Pope introduces him in _The Dunciad_, i. 87, in the description of the Lord Mayor's Show:--

'Pomps without guilt, of bloodless swords and maces, Glad chains, warm furs, broad banners and broad faces. Now night descending the proud scene was o'er, But lived in Settle's numbers one day more.'

In the third book the ghost of Settle acts the part of guide in the Elysian shade.

[221] Johnson implies, no doubt, that they were both Americans by birth. Trecothick was in the American trade, but he was not an American. Walpole's _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iii. 184, note. Of Beckford Walpole says:--'Under a jovial style of good humour he was tyrannic in Jamaica, his native country.' _Ib_. iv. 156. He came over to England when young and was educated in Westminster School. Stephens's _Horne Tooke_, ii. 278. Cowper describes 'a jocular altercation that passed when I was once in the gallery [of the House], between Mr. Rigby and the late Alderman Beckford. The latter was a very incorrect speaker, and the former, I imagine, not a very accurate scholar. He ventured, however, upon a quotation from Terence, and delivered it thus, _Sine Scelere et Baccho friget venus_. The Alderman interrupted him, was very severe upon his mistake, and restored Ceres to her place in the sentence. Mr. Rigby replied, that he was obliged to his worthy friend for teaching him Latin, and would take the first opportunity to return the favour by teaching him English.' Southey's _Cowper_, iii. 317. Lord Chatham, in the House of Lords, said of Trecothick:--'I do not know in office a more upright magistrate, nor in private life a worthier man.' _Parl. Hist_. xvi. 1101. See _post_, Sept. 23, 1777.

[222]

'Oft have I heard thee mourn the wretched lot Of the poor, mean, despised, insulted Scot, Who, might calm reason credit idle tales, By rancour forged where prejudice prevails, Or starves at home, or practises through fear Of starving arts which damn all conscience here.'

Churchill's _Prophecy of Famine, Poems_, i. 105.

[223] For Johnson's praise of Lichfield see _ante_, March 23, 1776. For the use of the word _civility_, see _ante_ ii. 155.

[224] See _ante_, i. 447.

[225] See _ante_, April 18, 1775.

[226] See _post_, April 15, 1778.

[227] It would not become me to expatiate on this strong and pointed remark, in which a very great deal of meaning is condensed. BOSWELL.

[228] 'Mr. Wilkes's second political essay was an ironical dedication to the Earl of Bute of Ben Jonson's play, _The Fall of Mortimer_. "Let me entreat your Lordship," he wrote, "to assist your friend [Mr. Murphy] in perfecting the weak scenes of this tragedy, and from the crude labours of Ben Jonson and others to give us a _complete play_. It is the warmest wish of my heart that the Earl of Bute may speedily complete the story of Roger Mortimer."' Almon's _Wilkes_, i. 70, 86.

[229] Yet Wilkes within less than a year violently attacked Johnson in parliament. He said, 'The two famous doctors, Shebbeare and Johnson, are in this reign the state hirelings called pensioners.' Their names, he continued, 'disgraced the Civil List. They are the known pensioned advocates of despotism.' _Parl. Hist_. xix. 118. It is curious that Boswell does not mention this attack, and that Johnson a few months after it was made, speaking of himself and Wilkes, said:--'The contest is now over.' _Post_, Sept 21, 1777.

[230] The next day he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'For my part, I begin to settle and keep company with grave aldermen. I dined yesterday in the Poultry with Mr. Alderman Wilkes, and Mr. Alderman Lee, and Counsellor Lee, his brother. There sat you the while, so sober, with your W----'s and your H----'s, and my aunt and her turnspit; and when they are gone, you think by chance on Johnson, what is he doing? What should he be doing? He is breaking jokes with Jack Wilkes upon the Scots. Such, Madam, are the vicissitudes of things.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 325.

[231] See _ante_, March 20, 1776.

[232] If he had said this on a former occasion to a lady, he said it also on a latter occasion to a gentleman--Mr. Spottiswoode. _Post_, April 28, 1778. Moreover, Miss Burney records in 1778, that when Johnson was telling about Bet Flint (_post_, May 8, 1781) and other strange characters whom he had known, 'Mrs. Thrale said, "I wonder, Sir, you never went to see Mrs. Rudd among the rest." "Why, Madam, I believe I should," said he, "if it was not for the newspapers; but I am prevented many frolics that I should like very well, since I am become such a theme for the papers."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 90.

[233] Pope, _Essay on Man_, ii. 2.

[234] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on May 14 (Tuesday):--'----goes away on Thursday, very well satisfied with his journey. Some great men have promised to obtain him a place, and then a fig for my father and his new wife.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 324. He is writing no doubt of Boswell; yet, as Lord Auchinleck had been married more than six years, it is odd his wife should be called _new_. Boswell, a year earlier, wrote to Temple of his hopes from Lord Pembroke:--'How happy should I be to get an independency by my own influence while my father is alive!' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 182. Johnson, in a second letter to Mrs. Thrale, written two days after Boswell left, says:--'B---- went away on Thursday night, with no great inclination to travel northward; but who can contend with destiny? ... He carries with him two or three good resolutions; I hope they will not mould upon the road.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 333.

[235] 1 _Corinthians_, xiii. 5.

[236] This passage, which is found in Act iii, is not in the acting copy of _Douglas_.

[237] Malone was one of these gentlemen. See _post_, under June 30, 1784. Reynolds, after saying that eagerness for victory often led Johnson into acts of rudeness, while 'he was not thus strenuous for victory with his intimates in tête-à-tête conversations when there were no witnesses,' adds:--'Were I to write the Life of Dr. Johnson I would labour this point, to separate his conduct that proceeded from his passions, and what proceeded from his reason, from his natural disposition seen in his quiet hours.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 462.

[238] These words must have been in the other copy. They are not in that which was preferred. BOSWELL.

[239] On June 3 he wrote that he was suffering from 'a very serious and troublesome fit of the gout. I enjoy all the dignity of lameness. I receive ladies and dismiss them sitting. _Painful pre-eminence_.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 337. 'Painful pre-eminence' comes from Addison's _Cato_, act iii. sc. 5. Pope, in his _Essay on Man_, iv. 267, borrows the phrase:--

'Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view, Above life's weakness and its comforts too.'

It is humorously introduced into the _Rolliad_ in the description of the Speaker:--

'There Cornewall sits, and oh! unhappy fate! Must sit for ever through the long debate. Painful pre-eminence! he hears, 'tis true, Fox, North, and Burke, but hears Sir Joseph too.'

[240] Dean Stanley (_Memorials of Westminster Abbey_, p. 297) says:-- 'One expression at least has passed from the inscription into the proverbial Latin of mankind--

"Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit."'

In a note he adds:--'Professor Conington calls my attention to the fact that, if this were a genuine classical expression, it would be _ornaret_. The slight mistake proves that it is Johnson's own.' The mistake, of course, is the Dean's and the Professor's, who did not take the trouble to ascertain what Johnson had really written. If we may trust Cradock, Johnson here gave in a Latin form what he had already said in English. 'When a bookseller ventured to say something rather slightingly of Dr. Goldsmith, Johnson retorted:--"Sir, Goldsmith never touches any subject but he adorns it." Once when I found the Doctor very low at his chambers I related this circumstance to him, and it instantly proved a cordial.' Cradock's _Memoirs_, i. 231.

[241] According to Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, i. 1), he was born on Nov. 10, 1728. There is a passage in Goldsmith's _Bee_, No. 2, which leads me to think that he himself held Nov. 12 as his birth-day. He says; 'I shall be sixty-two the twelfth of next November.' Now, as _The Bee_ was published in October 1759, he would be, not sixty-two, but just half that number--thirty-one on his next birth-day. It is scarcely likely that he selected the number and the date at random.

[242] Reynolds chose the spot in Westminster Abbey where the monument should stand. Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 326.

[243] For A. Chamier, see _ante_, i. 478, note 1; and _post_, April 9, 1778: for P. Metcalfe, _post_, under Dec. 20, 1782. W. Vachell seems only known to fame as having signed this _Round Robin_, and attended Sir Joshua's funeral. Who Tho. Franklin was I cannot learn. He certainly was not Thomas Francklin, D.D., the Professor of Greek at Cambridge and translator of _Sophocles_ and _Lucian_, mentioned _post_, end of 1780. The Rev. Dr. Luard, the Registrar of that University, has kindly compared for me six of his signatures ranging from 1739 to 1770. In each of these the _c_ is very distinct, while the writing is unlike the signature in the _Round Robin_.

[244] Horace Walpole wrote in Dec. of this year:--'The conversation of many courtiers was openly in favour of arbitrary power. Lord Huntingdon and Dr. Barnard, who was promised an Irish Bishopric, held such discourse publicly.' _Journal of the Reign of George III_, ii. 91.

[245] He however upon seeing Dr. Warton's name to the suggestion, that the Epitaph should be in English, observed to Sir Joshua, 'I wonder that Joe Warton, a scholar by profession, should be such a fool.' He said too, 'I should have thought Mund Burke would have had more sense.' Mr. Langton, who was one of the company at Sir Joshua's, like a sturdy scholar, resolutely refused to sign the _Round Robin_. The Epitaph is engraved upon Dr. Goldsmith's monument without any alteration. At another time, when somebody endeavoured to argue in favour of its being in English, Johnson said, 'The language of the country of which a learned man was a native, is not the language fit for his epitaph, which should be in ancient and permanent language. Consider, Sir; how you should feel, were you to find at Rotterdam an epitaph upon Erasmus _in Dutch_!' For my own part I think it would be best to have Epitaphs written both in a learned language, and in the language of the country; so that they might have the advantage of being more universally understood, and at the same time be secured of classical stability. I cannot, however, but be of opinion, that it is not sufficiently discriminative. Applying to Goldsmith equally the epithets of '_Poetae_, _Historici_, _Physici_,' is surely not right; for as to his claim to the last of those epithets, I have heard Johnson himself say, 'Goldsmith, Sir, will give us a very fine book upon the subject; but if he can distinguish a cow from a horse, that, I believe, may be the extent of his knowledge of natural history.' His book is indeed an excellent performance, though in some instances he appears to have trusted too much to Buffon, who, with all his theoretical ingenuity and extraordinary eloquence, I suspect had little actual information in the science on which he wrote so admirably. For instance, he tells us that the _cow_ sheds her horns every two years; a most palpable errour, which Goldsmith has faithfully transferred into his book. It is wonderful that Buffon, who lived so much in the country, at his noble seat, should have fallen into such a blunder. I suppose he has confounded the _cow_ with the _deer_. BOSWELL. Goldsmith says:--'At three years old the cow sheds its horns and new ones arise in their place, which continue as long as it lives.' _Animated Nature_, iii. 12. This statement remains in the second edition. Johnson said that the epitaph on Sir J. Macdonald 'should have been in Latin, as everything intended to be universal and permanent should be.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 5, 1773. He treated the notion of an English inscription to Smollett 'with great contempt, saying, "an English inscription would be a disgrace to Dr. Smollett."' _Ib_. Oct. 28, 1773.

[246] Beside this Latin Epitaph, Johnson honoured the memory of his friend Goldsmith with a short one in Greek. See _ante_, July 5, 1774. BOSWELL.

[247] See _ante_, Oct. 24, 1775.

[248] Upon a settlement of our account of expences on a Tour to the Hebrides, there was a balance due to me, which Dr. Johnson chose to discharge by sending books. BOSWELL.

[249] See _post_, under Nov. 29, 1777.

[250] Baretti told me that Johnson complained of my writing very long letters to him when I was upon the continent; which was most certainly true; but it seems my friend did not remember it. BOSWELL.

[251] See _ante_, iii. 27.

[252] See _ante_, i. 446, for Johnson's remedies against melancholy.