Chapter XIV: Part 14

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

[28] See _post_, beginning of 1781, after _The Life of Swift_, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 15.

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

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

[31] See _ante_, i. 332.

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

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

[34] See _ante_, i. 255.

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

[36] See _ante_, ii. 469.

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

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

[39] See _ante_, ii. 14.

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

[41] See _ante_, ii. 250.

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

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

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

[45] See _ante_, ii. 240.

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

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

[48] Bk. v. ch. 1.

[49] See _ante_, ii. 133, note 1; Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 27, and Oct. 28.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[52] See _ante_, i. 82.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[60] See _ante_, ii. 178.

[61]

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

Hammond. _Elegy_, v. In Boswell's _Hebrides_ (Sept. 29), he said 'Hammond's _Love Elegies_ were poor things.'

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

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

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

[65]

'May I govern my passion with
an absolute sway,
And grow wiser and better, as
my strength wears away,
Without gout or stone by a
gentle decay.'

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

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

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

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

[69] See post, p. 42.

[70] See ante, i. 326.

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

[72] See ante, April 16, 1779.

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

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

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

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

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

[78] See _ante_, iii. 8.

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

'Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill,
And thence poetick laurels bring,
Must first acquire due force and skill,
Must fly with swan's or eagle's wing.

Who Nature's treasures would explore,
Her mysteries and arcana know;
Must high as lofty Newton soar,
Must stoop as delving Woodward low.

Who studies ancient laws and rites,
Tongues, arts, and arms, and history;
Must drudge, like Selden, days and nights,
And in the endless labour die.

Who travels in religious jars,
(Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;)
Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars,
In ocean wide or sinks or strays.

But grant our hero's hope, long toil
And comprehensive genius crown,
All sciences, all arts his spoil,
Yet what reward, or what renown?

Envy, innate in vulgar souls,
Envy steps in and stops his rise,
Envy with poison'd tarnish fouls
His lustre, and his worth decries.

He lives inglorious or in want,
To college and old books confin'd;
Instead of learn'd he's call'd pedant,
Dunces advanc'd, he's left behind:
Yet left content a genuine Stoick he,
Great without patron, rich without South Sea.' BOSWELL.

In Mr. Croker's octavo editions, _arts_ in the fifth stanza is changed into _hearts_. J. Boswell, jun., gives the following reading of the first four lines of the last stanza, not from _Dodsley's Collection_, but from an earlier one, called _The Grove_.

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

[80] Bentley, in the preface to his edition of _Paradise Lost_, says:--

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

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

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

[83] _Ante_, i. 181.

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

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

Young in _The Last Day_, book I, had written:--

'Words all in vain pant after the distress.'

[85] I am sorry to see in the _Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh_, vol. ii, _An Essay on the Character of Hamlet_, written, I should suppose, by a very young man, though called 'Reverend;' who speaks with presumptuous petulance of the first literary character of his age. Amidst a cloudy confusion of words, (which hath of late too often passed in Scotland for _Metaphysicks_,) he thus ventures to criticise one of the noblest lines in our language:--'Dr. Johnson has remarked, that "time toil'd after him in vain." But I should apprehend, that this is _entirely to mistake the character_. Time toils after _every great man_, as well after Shakspeare. The _workings_ of an ordinary mind _keep pace_, indeed, with time; they move no faster; _they have their beginning, their middle, and their end_; but superiour natures can _reduce these into a point_. They do not, indeed, _suppress_ them; but they _suspend_, or they _lock them up in the breast_.' The learned Society, under whose sanction such gabble is ushered into the world, would do well to offer a premium to any one who will discover its meaning. BOSWELL.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'In himself was all his state.'
_Paradise Lost_, v. 353.

[94] See _ante,_ iii. 269.

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

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

[97] See _ante,_ i. 82, and ii. 228.

[98] See _ante,_ i. 242.

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

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

[101]

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

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

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

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

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

Fitzgerald's _Garrick_, ii. 363. See _ante_, ii. 231.

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

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

[106] See _ante_, ii. III. In the _Gent. Mag._ 1770, p. 78, is a review of _A Letter to Samuel Johnson, LL.D._, 'that is generally imputed to Mr. Wilkes.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[114] See _ante_, iii, 240.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[122] _Pr. and Med_. p.190. BOSWELL.

[123] _Ib_. 174. BOSWELL.

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

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

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

[126] _Institutiones_, liber i, Prooemium 3.

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

[128] Gibbon says of the last five quartos of the six that formed his _History_:--'My first rough manuscript, without any intermediate copy, has been sent to the press.' _Misc. Works_, i. 255. In the _Memoir of Goldsmith_, prefixed to his _Misc. Works_, i. 113, it is said:--'In whole quires of his _Histories_, _Animated Nature_, &c., he had seldom occasion to correct or alter a single word.' See _ante_, i. 203.

[129] From Waller's _Of Loving at First Sight_. Waller's _Poems, Miscellanies_, xxxiv.

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

[131] Thus:--'In the _Life of Waller_, Mr. Nichols will find a reference to the _Parliamentary History_ from which a long quotation is to be inserted. If Mr. Nichols cannot easily find the book, Mr. Johnson will send it from Streatham.'

'Clarendon is here returned.'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[132] He published, in 1782, a revised edition of Baker's_ Biographia Dramatica_. Baker was a grandson of De Foe. _Gent. Mag._ 1782, p. 77.

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

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

[135] _Life of Sheffield_. BOSWELL. Johnson's _Works_, vii. 485.

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

[137]

'Purpureus, late qui splendeat unus et alter
Assuitur pannus.'

'... Shreds of purple with broad lustre shine
Sewed on your poem.'

FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet_. 15.

[138] The original reading is enclosed in crochets, and the present one is printed in Italicks. BOSWELL.

[139] I have noticed a few words which, to our ears, are more uncommon than at least two of the three that Boswell mentions; as, 'Languages divaricate,' _Works_, vii. 309; 'The mellifluence of Pope's numbers,' _ib._ 337; 'A subject flux and transitory,' _ib._ 389; 'His prose is pure without scrupulosity,' _ib._ 472; 'He received and accommodated the ladies' (said of one serving behind the counter), _ib._ viii. 62; 'The prevalence of this poem was gradual,' _ib._ p. 276; 'His style is sometimes concatenated,' _ib._ p. 458. Boswell, on the next page, supplies one more instance--'Images such as the superficies of nature readily supplies.'

[140] See _ante_, iii. 249.

[141] Veracious is perhaps one of the 'four or five words' which Johnson added, or thought that he added, to the English language. _Ante_, i. 221. He gives it in his _Dictionary_, but without any authority for it. It is however older than his time.

[142] See Johnson's _Works_, vii. 134, 212, and viii. 386.

[143] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 452) writes of Johnson's '_Billingsgate on Milton_.' A later letter shows that, like so many of Johnson's critics, he had not read the _Life_. _Ib_. p. 508.

[144] _Works_, vii. 108.

[145] Thirty years earlier he had written of Milton as 'that poet whose works may possibly be read when every other monument of British greatness shall be obliterated.' _Ante_, i. 230. See _ante_, ii. 239.

[146] Earl Stanhope (_Life of Pitt_, ii. 65) describes this Society in 1790, 'as a Club, till then of little note, which had a yearly festival in commemoration of the events of 1688. It had been new-modelled, and enlarged with a view to the transactions at Paris, but still retained its former name to imply a close connection between the principles of 1688 in England, and the principles of 1789 in France.' The Earl Stanhope of that day presided at the anniversary meeting on Nov. 4, 1789. Nov. 4 was the day on which William III. landed.

[147] See _An Essay on the Life, Character, and writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson_, London, 1787; which is very well written, making a proper allowance for the democratical bigotry of its authour; whom I cannot however but admire for his liberality in speaking thus of my illustrious friend:--

'He possessed extraordinary powers of understanding, which were much cultivated by study, and still more by meditation and reflection. His memory was remarkably retentive, his imagination uncommonly vigorous, and his judgement keen and penetrating. He had a strong sense of the importance of religion; his piety was sincere, and sometimes ardent; and his zeal for the interests of virtue was often manifested in his conversation and in his writings. The same energy which was displayed in his literary productions was exhibited also in his conversation, which was various, striking, and instructive; and perhaps no man ever equalled him for nervous and pointed repartees.'

'His _Dictionary_, his moral Essays, and his productions in polite literature, will convey useful instruction, and elegant entertainment, as long as the language in which they are written shall be understood.' BOSWELL.

[148] Boswell paraphrases the following passage:--'The King, with lenity of which the world has had perhaps no other example, declined to be the judge or avenger of his own or his father's wrongs; and promised to admit into the Act of Oblivion all, except those whom the Parliament should except; and the Parliament doomed none to capital punishment but the wretches who had immediately co-operated in the murder of the King. Milton was certainly not one of them; he had only justified what they had done.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 95.

[149]
'Though fall'n on evil days,
On evil days though fall'n and evil tongues,
In darkness, and with dangers compast round.'
_Paradise Lost_, vii. 26.

[150] Johnson's _Works_, vii. 105.

[151] 'His political notions were those of an acrimonious and surly republican.' _Ib_. p. 116.

[152] 'What we know of Milton's character in domestick relations is, that he was severe and arbitrary.' _Ib._ p. 116.

[153] 'His theological opinions are said to have been first, Calvinistical; and afterwards, perhaps when he began to hate the Presbyterians, to have tended towards Arminianism.... He appears to have been untainted by any heretical peculiarity of opinion.' _Ib._ p. 115.

[154] Mr. Malone things it is rather a proof that he felt nothing of those cheerful sensations which he has described: that on these topicks it is the _poet_, and not the _man_, that writes. BOSWELL.

[155] See _ante_, i. 427, ii. 124, and iv. 20, for Johnson's condemnation of blank verse. This condemnations was not universal. Of Dryden, he wrote (_Works_, vii. 249):--'He made rhyming tragedies, till, by the prevalence of manifest propriety, he seems to have grown ashamed of making them any longer.' His own _Irene_ is in blank verse; though Macaulay justly remarks of it:--'He had not the slightest notion of what blank verse should be.' (Macaulay's _Writings and Speeches_, ed. 1871, p. 380.) Of Thomson's _Seasons_, he says (_Works_, vii. 377):--'His is one of the works in which blank verse seems properly used.' Of Young's _Night Thoughts_:--'This is one of the few poems in which blank verse could not be changed for rhyme but with disadvantage.' _Ib_. p. 460. Of Milton himself, he writes:--'Whatever be the advantages of rhyme, I cannot prevail on myself to wish that Milton had been a rhymer; for I cannot wish his work to be other than it is; yet, like other heroes, he is to be admired rather than imitated.' _Ib_. vii. 142. How much he felt the power of Milton's blank verse is shewn by his _Rambler_, No. 90, where, after stating that 'the noblest and most majestick pauses which our versification admits are upon the fourth and sixth syllables,' he adds:--' Some passages [in Milton] which conclude at this stop [the sixth syllable] I could never read without some strong emotions of delight or admiration.' 'If,' he continues, 'the poetry of Milton be examined with regard to the pauses and flow of his verses into each other, it will appear that he has performed all that our language would admit.' Cowper was so indignant at Johnson's criticism of Milton's blank verse that he wrote:--'Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pocket.' Southey's _Cowper_, iii. 315.

[156] One of the most natural instances of the effect of blank verse occurred to the late Earl of Hopeton. His Lordship observed one of his shepherds poring in the fields upon Milton's _Paradise Lost_; and having asked him what book it was, the man answered, 'An't please your Lordship, this is a very odd sort of an authour: he would fain rhyme, but cannot get at it.' BOSWELL. 'The variety of pauses, so much boasted by the lovers of blank verse, changes the measures of an English poet to the periods of a declaimer; and there are only a few skilful and happy readers of Milton, who enable their audience to perceive where the lines end or begin. "Blank verse," said an ingenious critick, "seems to be verse only to the eye."' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 141. In the _Life of Roscommon_ (_ib_. p. 171), he says:--'A poem frigidly didactick, without rhyme, is so near to prose, that the reader only scorns it for pretending to be verse.'

[157] Mr. Locke. Often mentioned in Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_.

[158] See vol. in. page 71. BOSWELL.

[159] It is scarcely a defence. Whatever it was, he thus ends it:-'It is natural to hope, that a comprehensive is likewise an elevated soul, and that whoever is wise is also honest. I am willing to believe that Dryden, having employed his mind, active as it was, upon different studies, and filled it, capacious as it was, with other materials, came unprovided to the controversy, and wanted rather skill to discover the right than virtue to maintain it. But inquiries into the heart are not for man; we must now leave him to his judge.' Works, vii. 279.

[160] In the original _fright_. _The Hind and the Panther_, i. 79.

[161] In this quotation two passages are joined. _Works_, vii. 339, 340.

[162] 'The deep and pathetic morality of the _Vanity of Human Wishes_' says Sir Walter Scott, 'has often extracted tears from those whose eyes wander dry over the pages of professed sentimentality.' CROKER. It. drew tears from Johnson himself. 'When,' says Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 50), 'he read his own satire, in which the life of a scholar is painted, he burst into a passion of tears. The family and Mr. Scott only were present, who, in a jocose way, clapped him on the back, and said:--"What's all this, my dear Sir? Why you, and I, and Hercules, you know, were all troubled with melancholy." He was a very large man, and made out the triumvirate with Johnson and Hercules comically enough. The Doctor was so delighted at his odd sally, that he suddenly embraced him, and the subject was immediately changed.'

[163] In Disraeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, iv. 180, is given 'a memorandum of Dr. Johnson's of hints for the _Life of Pope_.'

[164] _Works_, viii. 345.

[165] 'Of the last editor [Warburton] it is more difficult to speak. Respect is due to high place, tenderness to living reputation, and veneration to genius and learning; but he cannot be justly offended at that liberty of which he has himself so frequently given an example, nor very solicitous what is thought of notes which he ought never to have considered as part of his serious employments.' _Works_, v. 140. See _post_, June 10,1784.

[166] The liberality is certainly measured. With much praise there is much censure. _Works_, viii. 288. See _ante_, ii. 36, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 23.