[923] He is described by Walpole in his _Letters_, viii. 5.
[924] 'The night came on while we had yet a great part of the way to go,
though not so dark but that we could discern the cataracts which poured
down the hills on one side, and fell into one general channel, that ran
with great violence on the other. The wind was loud, the rain was heavy,
and the whistling of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of the
cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made a nobler chorus of the
rough musick of nature than it had ever been my chance to hear before.'
Johnson's _Works_, ix. 155. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'All the rougher
powers of nature except thunder were in motion, but there was no danger.
I should have been sorry to have missed any of the inconveniencies, to
have had more light or less rain, for their co-operation crowded the
scene and filled the mind.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 177.
[925] I never tasted whiskey except once for experiment at the inn in
Inverary, when I thought it preferable to any English malt brandy. It
was strong, but not pungent, and was free from the empyreumatick taste
or smell. What was the process I had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do
I wish to improve the art of making poison pleasant.' Johnson's _Works_,
ix. 52. Smollett, medical man though he was, looked upon whisky as
anything but poison. 'I am told that it is given with great success to
infants, as a cordial in the confluent small-pox.' _Humphry Clinker_.
Letter of Sept. 3.
[926] _Regale_ in this sense is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. It was,
however, a favourite word at this time. Thus, Mrs. Piozzi, in her
_Journey through France_, ii. 297, says:--'A large dish of hot chocolate
thickened with bread and cream is a common afternoon's regale here.'
Miss Burney often uses the word.
[927] Boswell, in answering Garrick's letter seven months later,
improved on this comparison. 'It was,' he writes, 'a pine-apple of the
finest flavour, which had a high zest indeed among the heath-covered
mountains of Scotia.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 621.
[928] See _ante_, p. 115.
[929] See _ante_, i. 97.
[930] 'Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane.' _Macbeth_, act v. sc.
8.
[931]
'From his first entrance to the closing scene
Let him one equal character maintain.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet._ l. 126.
[932] I took the liberty of giving this familiar appellation to my
celebrated friend, to bring in a more lively manner to his remembrance
the period when he was Dr. Johnson's pupil. BOSWELL.
[933] See _ante_, p. 129.
[934] Boswell is here quoting the Preface to the third edition of his
_Corsica_:--'Whatever clouds may overcast my days, I can now walk here
among the rocks and woods of my ancestors, with an agreeable
consciousness that I have done something worthy.'
[935] See _ante_, i. 148, and _post_, Nov. 21.
[936] I have suppressed my friend's name from an apprehension of
wounding his sensibility; but I would not withhold from my readers a
passage which shews Mr. Garrick's mode of writing as the Manager of a
Theatre, and contains a pleasing trait of his domestick life. His
judgment of dramatick pieces, so far as concerns their exhibition on the
stage, must be allowed to have considerable weight. But from the effect
which a perusal of the tragedy here condemned had upon myself, and from
the opinions of some eminent criticks, I venture to pronounce that it
has much poetical merit; and its authour has distinguished himself by
several performances which shew that the epithet _poetaster_ was, in the
present instance, much misapplied. BOSWELL. Johnson mentioned this
quarrel between Garrick and the poet on March 25, 1773 (_Piozzi
Letters_, i. 80). 'M---- is preparing a whole pamphlet against G----,
and G---- is, I suppose, collecting materials to confute M----.' M----
was Mickle, the translator of the _Lusiad_ and author of the _Ballad of
Cumnor Hall_ (_ante_, ii. 182). Had it not been for this 'poetaster,'
_Kenilworth_ might never have been written. Scott, in the preface, tells
how 'the first stanza of _Cunmor Hall_ had a peculiar species of
enchantment for his youthful ear, the force of which is not even now
entirely spent.' The play that was refused was the _Siege of
Marseilles_. Ever since the success of Hughes's _Siege of Damascus_ 'a
siege had become a popular title' (_ante_, iii. 259, note 1).
[937] She could only have been away for the day; for in 1776 Garrick
wrote:--'As I have not left Mrs. Garrick one day since we were married,
near twenty-eight years, I cannot now leave her.' _Garrick Corres_.
ii. 150.
[938] Dr. Morell once entered the school-room at Winchester College, 'in
which some junior boys were writing their exercises, one of whom, struck
no less with his air and manner than with the questions he put to them,
whispered to his school-fellows, "Is he not a fine old Grecian?" The
Doctor, overhearing this, turned hastily round and exclaimed, "I am
indeed an old Grecian, my little man. Did you never see my head before
my Thesaurus?"' The Praepostors, learning the dignity of their visitor,
in a most respectful manner showed him the College. Wooll's _Life of Dr.
Warton_, p. 329. Mason writing to Horace Walpole about some odes,
says:--'They are so lopped and mangled, that they are worse now than the
productions of Handel's poet, Dr. Morell.' Walpole's _Letters_, v. 420.
Morell compiled the words for Handel's _Oratorios_.
[939] _Ante_, i. 148.
[940] I doubt whether any other instance can be found of _love_ being
sent to Johnson.
[941] The passage begins:--'A _servant_ or two from a revering distance
cast many a wishful look, and condole their honoured master in the
language of sighs.' Hervey's _Meditations_, ed. 1748, i. 40.
[942] _Ib_. ii. 84.
[943] The _Meditation_ was perhaps partly suggested by Swift's
_Meditation upon a Broomstick_. Swift's _Works_ (1803), iii. 275.
[944] Thomas Burnet of the Charterhouse, in his _Sacred Theory of the
Earth_, ed. 1722, i. 85.
[945] See _ante_, i. 476, and ii. 73.
[946] Elizabeth Gunning, celebrated (like her sister, Lady Coventry) for
her personal charms, had been previously Duchess of Hamilton, and was
mother of Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, the competitor for the Douglas
property with the late Lord Douglas: she was, of course, prejudiced
against Boswell, who had shewn all the bustling importance of his
character in the Douglas cause, and it was said, I know not on what
authority, that he headed the mob which broke the windows of some of the
judges, and of Lord Auchinleck, his father, in particular. WALTER SCOTT.
See _ante_, ii. 50.
[947] See _ante_, i. 408, and ii. 329.
[948] She married the Earl of Derby, and was the great-grandmother of
the present Earl. Burke's _Peerage_.
[949] See _ante_, iv. 248.
[950] Lord Macaulay's grandfather, Trevelyan's _Macaulay_, i. 6.
[951] See _ante_, p. 118.
[952] On reflection, at the distance of several years, I wonder that my
venerable fellow-traveller should have read this passage without
censuring my levity. BOSWELL.
[953] _Ante_, p. 151.
[954] See _ante_, i. 240.
[955] As this book is now become very scarce, I shall subjoin the title,
which is curious:--The Doctrines of a Middle State between Death and
the Resurrection: Of Prayers for the Dead: And the Necessity of
Purification; plainly proved from the holy Scriptures, and the Writings
of the Fathers of the Primitive Church: and acknowledged by several
learned Fathers and Great Divines of the Church of England and others
since the Reformation. To which is added, an Appendix concerning the
Descent of the Soul of Christ into Hell, while his Body lay in the
Grave. Together with the Judgment of the Reverend Dr. Hickes concerning
this Book, so far as relates to a Middle State, particular Judgment, and
Prayers for the Dead as it appeared in the first Edition. 'And a
Manuscript of the Right Reverend Bishop Overall upon the Subject of a
Middle State, and never before printed. Also, a Preservative against
several of the Errors of the Roman Church, in six small Treatises. By
the Honourable Archibald Campbell. Folio, 1721. BOSWELL.
[956] The release gained for him by Lord Townshend must have been from
his last imprisonment after the accession of George I; for, as Mr.
Croker points out, Townshend was not Secretary of State till 1714.
[957] See _ante_, iv. 286.
[958] He was the grandson of the first Marquis, who was beheaded by
Charles II in 1661, and nephew of the ninth Earl, who was beheaded by
James II in 1685. Burke's _Peerage_. He died on June 15, 1744, according
to the _Gent. Mag._ xiv. 339; where he is described as 'the consecrated
Archbishop of St. Andrews.' See _ante_, ii. 216.
[959] George Hickes, 1642-1715. A non-juror, consecrated in 1693
suffragan bishop of Thetford by three of the deprived non-juror bishops.
Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._ xvii. 450. Burnet (_Hist. of his own Time_, iv.
303) describes him as 'an ill-tempered man, who was now [1712] at the
head of the Jacobite party, and who had in several books promoted a
notion, that there was a proper sacrifice made in the Eucharist.'
Boswell mentions him, _ante_, iv. 287.
[960] See _ante_, ii. 458.
[961] This must be a mistake for _He died_.
[962] 'It is generally supposed that life is longer in places where
there are few opportunities of luxury; but I found no instance here of
extraordinary longevity. A cottager grows old over his oaten cakes like
a citizen at a turtle feast. He is, indeed, seldom incommoded by
corpulence, Poverty preserves him from sinking under the burden of
himself, but he escapes no other injury of time.' Johnson's Works,
ix. 81.
[963] Lady Lucy Graham, daughter of the second Duke of Montrose, and
wife of Mr. Douglas, the successful claimant: she died in 1780, whence
Boswell calls her '_poor_ Lady Lucy.' CROKER
[964] Her first husband was the sixth Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. On
his death she refused the Duke of Bridgewater. She was the mother of
four dukes--two of Hamilton and two of Argyle. Her sister married the
Earl of Coventry. Walpole's _Letters_, ii. 259, note. Walpole, writing
on Oct. 9, 1791, says that their story was amazing. 'The two beautiful
sisters were going on the stage, when they were at once exalted almost
as high as they could be, were Countessed and double-Duchessed.' _Ib_.
ix. 358. Their maiden name was Gunning. The Duchess of Argyle was alive
when Boswell published his _Journal_.
[965] See _ante_, iv. 397, and v. 210. It was Lord Macaulay's
grandfather who was thus reprimanded. Mr. Trevelyan remarks (_Life of
Macaulay_, i. 7), 'When we think what well-known ground this [subject]
was to Lord Macaulay, it is impossible to suppress a wish that the great
talker had been at hand to avenge his grandfather.' The result might
well have been, however, that the great talker would have been reduced
to silence--one of those brilliant flashes of silence for which Sydney
Smith longed, but longed in vain.
[966] See _ante_, ii. 264, note 2.
[967] See _ante_, iv. 8, for his use of 'O brave!'
[968] Having mentioned, more than once, that my _Journal_ was perused by
Dr. Johnson, I think it proper to inform my readers that this is the
last paragraph which he read. BOSWELL. He began to read it on August 18
(_ante_, p. 58, note 2).
[969] See _ante_, ii. 320.
[970] Act i. sc. 1. The best known passage in _Douglas_ is the speech
beginning 'My name is Norval.' Act ii. The play affords a few quotations
more or less known, as:--
'I found myself
As women wish to be who love their lords.'
Act i.
'He seldom errs
Who thinks the worse he can of womankind.'
Act iii.
'Honour, sole judge and umpire of itself.'
Act iv.
'Unknown I die; no tongue shall speak of me.
Some noble spirits, judging by themselves,
May yet conjecture what I might have proved,
And think life only wanting to my fame.'
Act v.
'An honest guardian, arbitrator just
Be thou; thy station deem a sacred trust.
With thy good sword maintain thy country's cause;
In every action venerate its laws:
The lie suborn'd if falsely urg'd to swear,
Though torture wait thee, torture firmly bear;
To forfeit honour, think the highest shame,
And life too dearly bought by loss of fame;
Nor to preserve it, with thy virtue give
That for which only man should wish to live.'
[_Satires_, viii. 79.]
For this and the other translations to which no signature is affixed, I
am indebted to the friend whose observations are mentioned in the notes,
pp. 78 and 399. BOSWELL. Sir Walter Scott says, 'probably Dr. Hugh
Blair.' I have little doubt that it was Malone. 'One of the best
criticks of our age,' Boswell calls this friend in the other two
passages. This was a compliment Boswell was likely to pay to Malone, to
whom he dedicated this book. Malone was a versifier. See Prior's
_Malone_, p. 463.
[971] I am sorry that I was unlucky in my quotation. But notwithstanding
the acuteness of Dr. Johnson's criticism, and the power of his ridicule,
_The Tragedy of Douglas_ sill continues to be generally and deservedly
admired. BOSWELL. Johnson's scorn was no doubt returned, for Dr. A.
Carlyle (_Auto._ p. 295) says of Home:--'as John all his life had a
thorough contempt for such as neglected his poetry, he treated all who
approved of his works with a partiality which more than approached to
flattery.' Carlyle tells (pp. 301-305) how Home started for London with
his tragedy in one pocket of his great coat and his clean shirt and
night-cap in the other, escorted on setting out by six or seven Merse
ministers. 'Garrick, after reading his play, returned it as totally
unfit for the stage.' It was brought out first in Edinburgh, and in the
year 1757 in Covent Garden, where it had great success. 'This tragedy,'
wrote Carlyle forty-five years later, 'still maintains its ground, has
been more frequently acted, and is more popular than any tragedy in the
English language.' _Ib._ p. 325. Hannah More recorded in 1786
(_Memoirs_, ii. 22), 'I had a quarrel with Lord Monboddo one night
lately. He said _Douglas_ was a better play than Shakespeare could have
written. He was angry and I was pert. Lord Mulgrave sat spiriting me up,
but kept out of the scrape himself, and Lord Stormont seemed to enjoy
the debate, but was shabby enough not to help me out.'
[972] See _ante_, ii. 230, note 1.
[973] See _ante_, p. 318.
[974] See _ante_, iii. 54
[975] See _ante_, p. 356.
[976] See _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.
[977] As a remarkable instance of his negligence, I remember some years
ago to have found lying loose in his study, and without the cover, which
contained the address, a letter to him from Lord Thurlow, to whom he had
made an application as Chancellor, in behalf of a poor literary friend.
It was expressed in such terms of respect for Dr. Johnson, that, in my
zeal for his reputation, I remonstrated warmly with him on his strange
inattention, and obtained his permission to take a copy of it; by which
probably it has been preserved, as the original I have reason to suppose
is lost. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 441.
[978] 'The islets, which court the gazer at a distance, disgust him at
his approach, when he finds, instead of soft lawns and shady thickets,
nothing more than uncultivated ruggedness.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 156.
[979] See _ante_, i. 200, and iv. 179.
[980] In these arguments he says:--'Reason and truth will prevail at
last. The most learned of the Scottish doctors would now gladly admit a
form of prayer, if the people would endure it. The zeal or rage of
congregations has its different degrees. In some parishes the Lord's
Prayer is suffered: in others it is still rejected as a form; and he
that should make it part of his supplication would be suspected of
heretical pravity.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 102. See _ante_, p. 121.
[981] 'A very little above the source of the Leven, on the lake, stands
the house of Cameron, belonging to Mr. Smollett, so embosomed in an oak
wood that we did not see it till we were within fifty yards of the
door.' _Humphry Clinker_, Letter of Aug. 28.
[982] Boswell himself was at times one of 'those absurd visionaries.'
_Ante_, ii. 73.
[983] See _ante_, p. 117.
[984] Lord Kames wrote one, which is published in Chambers's _Traditions
of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, i. 280. In it he bids the traveller to 'indulge
the hope of a Monumental Pillar.'
[985] See _ante_, iii. 85; and v. 154.
[986] This address does not offend against the rule that Johnson lays
down in his _Essay on Epitaphs_ (_Works_, v. 263), where he says:--'It
is improper to address the epitaph to the passenger.' The impropriety
consists in such an address in a church. He however did break through
his rule in his epitaph in Streatham Church on Mr. Thrale, where he
says:--'Abi viator.' _Ib._ i. 154.
[987] In _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of Aug. 28), which was published a
few months before Smollett's death, is his _Ode on Leven-Water_.
[988] The epitaph which has been inscribed on the pillar erected on the
banks of the Leven, in honour of Dr. Smollett, is as follows. The part
which was written by Dr. Johnson, it appears, has been altered; whether
for the better, the reader will judge. The alterations are distinguished
by Italicks.
Siste viator!
Si lepores ingeniique venam benignam,
Si morum callidissimum pictorem, Unquam es miratus,
Immorare paululum memoriae
TOBIAE SMOLLET, M.D.
Viri virtutibus _hisce_
Quas in homine et cive
Et laudes et imiteris,
Haud mediocriter ornati:
Qui in literis variis versatus,
Postquam felicitate _sibi propria_
Sese posteris commendaverat,
Morte acerba raptus
Anno aetatis 51,
Eheu: quam procul a patria!
Prope Liburni portum in Italia, Jacet sepultres.
Tali tantoque viro, patrueli suo, Cui in decursu lampada
Se potius tradidisse decuit, Hanc Columnam,
Amoris, eheu! inane monumentum In ipsis Leviniae ripis,
Quas _versiculis sub exitu vitae illustratas_
Primis infans vagitibus personuit, Ponendam curavit
JACOBUS SMOLLET de Bonhill. Abi et reminiscere,
Hoc quidem honore, Non modo defuncti memoriae,
Verum etiam exemplo, prospectum esse;
Aliis enim, si modo digni sint,
Idem erit virtutis praemium!