'The sweet vicissitudes of day and night.'
The following elegant version of these lines by Mr. A. T. Barton, Fellow
and Tutor of Johnson's own College, will please the classical reader:--
Musa levat duros, quamvis rudis ore, labores;
Inter opus cantat rustica Pyrrha suum;
Nec meminit, secura rotam dum versat euntem,
Non aliter nostris sortibus ire vices.
[369] He was the brother of the Rev. John M'Aulay (_post_, Oct. 25), the
grandfather of Lord Macaulay.
[370] See _ante_, ii. 51.
[371] In Scotland, there is a great deal of preparation before
administering the sacrament. The minister of the parish examines the
people as to their fitness, and to those of whom he approves gives
little pieces of tin, stamped with the name of the parish as _tokens_,
which they must produce before receiving it. This is a species of
priestly power, and sometimes may be abused. I remember a lawsuit
brought by a person against his parish minister, for refusing him
admission to that sacred ordinance. BOSWELL.
[372] See _ post_, Sept. 13 and 28.
[373] Mr. Trevelyan (_Life of Macaulay_, ed.1877, i. 6) says: 'Johnson
pronounced that Mr. Macaulay was not competent to have written the book
that went by his name; a decision which, to those who happen to have
read the work, will give a very poor notion my ancestor's abilities.'
[374]
'The thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman.'
_Macbeth_, act i. sc. 3.
[375] According to Murray's _Handbook,_ ed. 1867, p. 308, no part of the
castle is older than the fifteenth century.
[376] See _post_, Nov. 5.
[377] The historian. _Ante_, p. 41.
[378] See _ante_, iii. 336, and _post_, Nov. 7.
[379] See _post_, Oct. 27.
[380] Baretti was the Italian. Boswell disliked him (_ante_, ii. 98
note), and perhaps therefore described him merely as 'a man of _some_
literature.' Baretti complained to Malone that 'the story as told gave
an unfair representation of him.' He had, he said, 'observed to Johnson
that the petition _lead us not into temptation_ ought rather to be
addressed to the tempter of mankind than a benevolent Creator. "Pray,
Sir," said Johnson, "do you know who was the author of the Lord's
Prayer?" Baretti, who did not wish to get into any serious dispute and
who appears to be an Infidel, by way of putting an end to the
conversation, only replied:--"Oh, Sir, you know by _our_ religion (Roman
Catholic) we are not permitted to read the Scriptures. You can't
therefore expect an answer."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 399. Sir Joshua
Reynolds, on hearing this from Malone, said:--'This turn which Baretti
now gives to the matter was an after-thought; for he once said to me
myself:--"There are various opinions about the writer of that prayer;
some give it to St. Augustine, some to St. Chrysostom, &c. What is your
opinion? "' _Ib_. p. 394. Mrs. Piozzi says that she heard 'Baretti tell
a clergyman the story of Dives and Lazarus as the subject of a poem he
once had composed in the Milanese district, expecting great credit for
his powers of invention.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 348.
[381] Goldsmith (_Present Slate of Polite Learning_, chap. 13) thus
wrote of servitorships: 'Surely pride itself has dictated to the fellows
of our colleges the absurd passion of being attended at meals, and on
other public occasions, by those poor men who, willing to be scholars,
come in upon some charitable foundation. It implies a contradiction for
men to be at once learning the _liberal_ arts, and at the same time
treated as _slaves_; at once studying freedom and practising servitude.'
Yet a young man like Whitefield was willing enough to be a servitor. He
had been a waiter in his mother's inn; he was now a waiter in a college,
but a student also. See my _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and his
Critics_, p. 27.
[382] Dr. Johnson did not neglect what he had undertaken. By his
interest with the Rev. Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke College, Oxford,
where he was educated for some time, he obtained a servitorship for
young M'Aulay. But it seems he had other views; and I believe went
abroad. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 380.
[383] 'I once drank tea,' writes Lamb, 'in company with two Methodist
divines of different persuasions. Before the first cup was handed round,
one of these reverend gentlemen put it to the other, with all due
solemnity, whether he chose to _say anything_. It seems it is the custom
with some sectaries to put up a short prayer before this meal also. His
reverend brother did not at first quite apprehend him, but upon an
explanation, with little less importance he made answer that it was not
a custom known in his church.' _Essay on Grace before Meat_.
[384] He could not bear to have it thought that, in any instance
whatever, the Scots are more pious than the English. I think grace as
proper at breakfast as at any other meal. It is the pleasantest meal we
have. Dr. Johnson has allowed the peculiar merit of breakfast in
Scotland. BOSWELL. 'If an epicure could remove by a wish in quest of
sensual gratification, wherever he had supped he would breakfast in
Scotland.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 52.
[385] Bruce, the Abyssinian Traveller, found in the annals of that
region a king named _Brus_, which he chooses to consider the genuine
orthography of the name. This circumstance occasioned some mirth at the
court of Gondar. WALTER SCOTT.
[386] See _ante_, ii. 169, note 2, and _post_, Sept. 2. Johnson, so far
as I have observed, spelt the name _Boswel_.
[387] Sir Eyre Coote was born in 1726. He took part in the battle of
Plassey in 1757, and commanded at the reduction of Pondicherry in 1761.
In 1770-71 he went by land to Europe. In 1780 he took command of the
English army against Hyder Ali, whom he repeatedly defeated. He died in
1783. Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. x. 236. There is a fine description of
him in Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, iii. 385.
[388] See _ante_, iii. 361.
[389] Reynolds wrote of Johnson:--'He sometimes, it must be confessed,
covered his ignorance by generals rather than appear ignorant' Taylor's
_Reynolds_, ii. 457.
[390] 'The barracks are very handsome, and form several regular and good
streets.' Pennant's _Tour_, p. 144.
[391] See _ante_, p. 45.
[392] Here Dr. Johnson gave us part of a conversation held between a
Great Personage and him, in the library at the Queen's Palace, in the
course of which this contest was considered. I have been at great pains
to get that conversation as perfectly preserved as possible. It may
perhaps at some future time be given to the publick. BOSWELL. For 'a
Great Personage' see _ante_, i. 219; and for the conversation, ii. 33.
[393] See _ante_, ii. 73, 228, 248; iii. 4 and June 15, 1784.
[394] See _ante_, i. 167, note 1.
[395] Booth acted _Cato_, and Wilks Juba when Addison's _Cato_ was
brought out. Pope told Spence that 'Lord Bolingbroke's carrying his
friends to the house, and presenting Booth with a purse of guineas for
so well representing the character of a person "who rather chose to die
than see a general for life," carried the success of the play much
beyond what they ever expected.' Spence's _Anec_. p. 46. Bolingbroke
alluded to the Duke of Marlborough. Pope in his _Imitations of Horace_,
2 Epist. i. 123 introduces 'well-mouth'd Booth.'
[396] See _ante_, iii. 35, and under Sept. 30, 1783.
[397] 'Garrick used to tell, that Johnson said of an actor who played
Sir Harry Wildair at Lichfield, "There is a courtly vivacity about the
fellow;" when, in fact, according to Garrick's account, "he was the most
vulgar ruffian that ever went upon _boards_."' _Ante_, ii. 465.
[398] Mrs. Cibber was the sister of Dr. Arne the musical composer, and
the wife of Theophilus Cibber, Colley Cibber's son. She died in 1766,
and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Baker's _Biog.
Dram._ i. 123.
[399] See _ante_, under Sept. 30, 1783.
[400] See _ante_, i. 197, and ii. 348.
[401] Johnson had set him to repeat the ninth commandment, and had with
great glee put him right in the emphasis. _Ante_, i. 168.
[402] Act iii. sc. 2.
[403] Boswell's suggestion is explained by the following passage in
Johnson's _Works_, viii. 463:--'Mallet was by his original one of the
Macgregors, a clan that became about sixty years ago, under the conduct
of Robin Roy, so formidable and so infamous for violence and robbery,
that the name was annulled by a legal abolition.'
[404] See _ante_, iii. 410, where he said to an Irish gentleman:--'Do
not make an union with us, Sir. We should unite with you, only to rob
you. We should have robbed the Scotch, if they had had anything of which
we could have robbed them.'
[405] It is remarkable that Dr. Johnson read this gentle remonstrance,
and took no notice of it to me. BOSWELL. See _post_, Oct. 12, note.
[406] _St. Matthew_, v. 44.
[407] It is odd that Boswell did not suspect the parson, who, no doubt,
had learnt the evening before from Mr. Keith that the two travellers
would be present at his sermon. Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 283)
says that one day at Sir Joshua's dinner-table, when his host praised
Malone very highly for his laborious edition of _Shakespeare_, he
(Northcote) 'rather hastily replied, "What a very despicable creature
must that man be who thus devotes himself, and makes another man his
god;" when Boswell, who sat at my elbow, and was not in my thoughts at
the time, cried out "Oh! Sir Joshua, then that is me!"'
[408] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 23) more cautiously says:--'Here is a
castle, called the castle of Macbeth.'
[409] 'This short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, whilst they are
approaching the gates of Macbeth's castle, has always appeared to me a
striking instance of what in painting is termed _repose_. Their
conversation very naturally turns upon the beauty of its situation, and
the pleasantness of the air; and Banquo, observing the martlet's nests
in every recess of the cornice, remarks that where those birds most
breed and haunt the air is delicate. The subject of this quiet and easy
conversation gives that repose so necessary to the mind after the
tumultuous bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts the
scene of horror that immediately succeeds. It seems as if Shakespeare
asked himself, what is a prince likely to say to his attendants on such
an occasion? whereas the modern writers seem, on the contrary, to be
always searching for new thoughts, such as would never occur to men in
the situation which is represented. This also is frequently the practice
of Homer, who from the midst of battles and horrors relieves and
refreshes the mind of the reader by introducing some quiet rural image,
or picture of familiar domestick life.' Johnson's _Shakespeare_.
Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, i. 144-151) quotes other notes
by Reynolds.
[410] In the original _senses_. Act i, sc. 6.
[411] Act i. sc. 5.
[412] Boswell forgets _scoundrelism_, _ante_, p. 106, which, I suppose,
Johnson coined.
[413] See _ante_, ii. 154, note 3. Peter Paragraph is one of the
characters in Foote's Comedy of _The Orators_.
[414] When upon the subject of this _peregrinity_, he told me some
particulars concerning the compilation of his _Dictionary_, and
concerning his throwing off Lord Chesterfield's patronage, of which very
erroneous accounts have been circulated. These particulars, with others
which he afterwards gave me,--as also his celebrated letter to Lord
Chesterfield, which he dictated to me,--I reserve for his _Life._
BOSWELL. See _ante,_ i. 221, 261.
[415] See _ante,_ ii. 326, 371, and v. 18.
[416] It is the third edition, published in 1778, that first bears this
title. The first edition was published in 1761, and the second in 1762.
[417] 'One of them was a man of great liveliness and activity, of whom
his companion said that he would tire any horse in Inverness. Both of
them were civil and ready-handed Civility seems part of the national
character of Highlanders.' _Works,_ ix. 25.
[418] 'The way was very pleasant; the rock out of which the road was cut
was covered with birch trees, fern, and heath. The lake below was
beating its bank by a gentle wind.... In one part of the way we had
trees on both sides for perhaps half a mile. Such a length of shade,
perhaps, Scotland cannot shew in any other place.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.
123. The travellers must have passed close by the cottage where James
Mackintosh was living, a child of seven.
[419] Boswell refers, I think, to a passage in act iv. sc. I of
Farquhar's Comedy, where Archer says to Mrs. Sullen:--'I can't at this
distance, Madam, distinguish the figures of the embroidery.' This
passage is copied by Goldsmith in _She Stoops to Conquer_, act iii.,
where Marlow says to Miss Hardcastle: 'Odso! then you must shew me your
embroidery.'
[420] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 28) gives a long account of this woman.
'Meal she considered as expensive food, and told us that in spring, when
the goats gave milk, the children could live without it.'
[421] It is very odd, that when these roads were made, there was no care
taken for _Inns_. The _King's House_, and the _General's Hut_, are
miserable places; but the project and plans were purely military. WALTER
SCOTT. Johnson found good entertainment here, 'We had eggs and bacon and
mutton, with wine, rum, and whisky. I had water.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 124.
[422] 'Mr. Boswell, who between his father's merit and his own is sure
of reception wherever he comes, sent a servant before,' &c. Johnson's
_Works_, ix. 30.
[423] On April 6, 1777, Johnson noted down: 'I passed the night in such
sweet uninterrupted sleep as I have not known since I slept at Fort
Augustus.' _Pr. and Med._ p.159. On Nov. 21, 1778, he wrote to Boswell:
'The best night that I have had these twenty years was at Fort
Augustus.' _Ante_, iii. 369.
[424] See _ante_, iii. 246.
[425] A McQueen is a Highland mode of expression. An Englishman would
say _one_ McQueen. But where there are _clans_ or _tribes_ of men,
distinguished by _patronymick_ surnames, the individuals of each are
considered as if they were of different species, at least as much as
nations are distinguished; so that a _McQueen_, a _McDonald_, a
_McLean_, is said, as we say a Frenchman, an Italian, a Spaniard.
BOSWELL.
[426] 'I praised the propriety of his language, and was answered that I
need not wonder, for he had learnt it by grammar. By subsequent
opportunities of observation I found that my host's diction had nothing
peculiar. Those Highlanders that can speak English commonly speak it
well, with few of the words and little of the tone by which a Scotchman
is distinguished ... By their Lowland neighbours they would not
willingly be taught; for they have long considered them as a mean and
degenerate race.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 31. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:
'This man's conversation we were glad of while we staid. He had been
out, as they call it, in forty-five, and still retained his old
opinions.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 130.
[427] By the Chevalier Ramsay.
[428] 'From him we first heard of the general dissatisfaction which is
now driving the Highlanders into the other hemisphere; and when I asked
him whether they would stay at home if they were well treated, he
answered with indignation that no man willingly left his native country.
Johnson's _Works_, ix. 33. See _ante_, p. 27.
[429] 'The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.' _Ib._
v. 49.
[430] Four years later, three years after Goldsmith's death, Johnson
'observed in Lord Scarsdale's dressing-room Goldsmith's _Animated
Nature_; and said, "Here's our friend. The poor doctor would have been
happy to hear of this."' _Ante_, iii.162.
[431] See _ante_, i. 348 and ii. 438 and _post_, Sept. 23. Mackintosh
says: 'Johnson's idea that a ship was a prison with the danger of
drowning is taken from Endymion Porter's _Consolation to Howell_ on his
imprisonment in the _Fleet_, and was originally suggested by the pun.'
_Life of Mackintosh_, ii. 83. The passage to which he refers is found in
Howell's letter of Jan. 2, 1646 (book ii. letter 39), in which he writes
to Porter:--'You go on to prefer my captivity in this _Fleet_ to that of
a voyager at sea, in regard that he is subject to storms and springing
of leaks, to pirates and picaroons, with other casualties.'
[432] See _ante_, iii. 242.
[433] This book has given rise to much enquiry, which has ended in
ludicrous surprise. Several ladies, wishing to learn the kind of reading
which the great and good Dr. Johnson esteemed most fit for a young
woman, desired to know what book he had selected for this Highland
nymph. 'They never adverted (said he) that I had no _choice_ in the
matter. I have said that I presented her with a book which I _happened_
to have about me.' And what was this book? My readers, prepare your
features for merriment. It was _Cocker's Arithmetick_!--Wherever this
was mentioned, there was a loud laugh, at which Johnson, when present,
used sometimes to be a little angry. One day, when we were dining at
General Oglethorpe's, where we had many a valuable day, I ventured to
interrogate him. 'But, Sir, is it not somewhat singular that you should
_happen_ to have _Cocker's Arithmetick_ about you on your journey? What
made you buy such a book at Inverness?' He gave me a very sufficient
answer. 'Why, Sir, if you are to have but one book with you upon a
journey, let it be a book of science. When you have read through a book
of entertainment, you know it, and it can do no more for you; but a book
of science is inexhaustible.' BOSWELL.
Johnson thus mentions his gift: 'I presented her with a book which I
happened to have about me, and should not be pleased to think that she
forgets me.' _Works_, ix. 32. The first edition of _Cocker's Arithmetic_
was published about 1660. _Brit. Mus. Cata._ Though Johnson says that 'a
book of science is inexhaustible,' yet in _The Rambler_, No. 154, he
asserts that 'the principles of arithmetick and geometry may be
comprehended by a close attention in a few days.' Mrs. Piozzi says
(_Anec_. p. 77) that 'when Mr. Johnson felt his fancy disordered, his
constant recurrence was to arithmetic; and one day that he was confined
to his chamber, and I enquired what he had been doing to divert himself,
he shewed me a calculation which I could scarce be made to understand,
so vast was the plan of it; no other indeed than that the national debt,
computing it at £180,000,000, would, if converted into silver, serve to
make a meridian of that metal, I forget how broad, for the globe of the
whole earth.' See _ante_, iii. 207, and iv. 171, note 3.
[434] Swift's _Works_ (1803), xxiv. 63.
[435] 'We told the soldiers how kindly we had been treated at the
garrison, and, as we were enjoying the benefit of their labours, begged
leave to shew our gratitude by a small present.... They had the true
military impatience of coin in their pockets, and had marched at least
six miles to find the first place where liquor could be bought. Having
never been before in a place so wild and unfrequented I was glad of
their arrival, because I knew that we had made them friends; and to gain
still more of their goodwill we went to them, where they were carousing
in the barn, and added something to our former gift.' _Works_, ix. 31-2.
[436]
'Why rather sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee.' &c.