[989] Baretti told Malone that, having proposed to teach Johnson
Italian, they went over a few stanzas of Ariosto, and Johnson then grew
weary. 'Some years afterwards Baretti said he would give him another
lesson, but added, "I suppose you have forgotten what we read before."
"Who forgets, Sir?" said Johnson, and immediately repeated three or four
stanzas of the poem.' Baretti took down the book to see if it had been
lately opened, but the leaves were covered with dust. Prior's _Malone_,
p. 160. Johnson had learnt to translate Italian before he knew Baretti.
_Ante_, i. 107, 156. For other instances of his memory, see _ante_, i.
39, 48; iii. 318, note 1; and iv. 103, note 2.
[990] For sixty-eight days he received no letter--from August 21
(_ante_, p. 84) to October 28.
[991] Among these professors might possibly have been either Burke or
Hume had not a Mr. Clow been the successful competitor in 1751 as the
successor to Adam Smith in the chair of Logic. 'Mr. Clow has acquired a
curious title to fame, from the greatness of the man to whom he
succeeded, and of those over whom he was triumphant.' J.H. Burton's
_Hume_, i. 351.
[992] Dr. Reid, the author of the _Inquiry into the Human Mind_, had in
1763 succeeded Adam Smith as Professor of Moral Philosophy. Dugald
Stewart was his pupil the winter before Johnson's visit. Stewart's
_Reid_, ed. 1802, p. 38.
[993] See _ante_, iv. 186.
[994] Mr. Boswell has chosen to omit, for reasons which will be
presently obvious, that Johnson and Adam Smith met at Glasgow; but I
have been assured by Professor John Miller that they did so, and that
Smith, leaving the party in which he had met Johnson, happened to come
to another company _where Miller was_. Knowing that Smith had been in
Johnson's society, they were anxious to know what had passed, and the
more so as Dr. Smith's temper seemed much ruffled. At first Smith would
only answer, 'He's a brute--he's a brute;' but on closer examination, it
appeared that Johnson no sooner saw Smith than he attacked him for some
point of his famous letter on the death of Hume (_ante_, p. 30). Smith
vindicated the truth of his statement. 'What did Johnson say?' was the
universal inquiry. 'Why, he said,' replied Smith, with the deepest
impression of resentment, 'he said, _you lie!_' 'And what did you
reply?' 'I said, you are a son of a------!' On such terms did these two
great moralists meet and part, and such was the classical dialogue
between two great teachers of philosophy. WALTER SCOTT. This story is
erroneous in the particulars of the _time, place,_ and _subject_ of the
alleged quarrel; for Hume did not die for [nearly] three years after
Johnson's only visit to Glasgow; nor was Smith then there. Johnson,
previous to 1763 (see _ante_, i. 427, and iii. 331), had an altercation
with Adam Smith at Mr. Strahan's table. This may have been the
foundation of Professor Miller's misrepresentation. But, even _then_,
nothing of this offensive kind could have passed, as, if it had, Smith
could certainly not have afterwards solicited admission to the Club of
which Johnson was the leader, to which he was admitted 1st Dec. 1775,
and where he and Johnson met frequently on civil terms. I, therefore,
disbelieve the whole story. CROKER.
[995] 'His appearance,' says Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 68), 'was that
of an ascetic, reduced by fasting and prayer.' See _ante_, p. 68.
[996] See _ante_, ii. 27, 279.
[997] See _ante,_ p. 92.
[998] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'I was not much pleased with any
of the Professors.' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 199. Mme. D'Arblay says:--
'Whenever Dr. Johnson did not make the charm of conversation he only
marred it by his presence, from the general fear he incited, that if he
spoke not, he might listen; and that if he listened, he might reprove.'
_Memoirs of Dr. Burney,_ ii. 187. See _ante_, ii. 63
[999] Boswell has not let us see this caution. When Robertson first came
in, 'there began,' we are told, 'some animated dialogue' (_ante,_ p.32).
The next day we read that 'he fluently harangued to Dr. Johnson'
(_ante,_ p.43).
[1000] See _ante,_ iii. 366.
[1001] He was Ambassador at Paris in the beginning of the reign of
George I., and Commander-in-Chief in 1744. Lord Mahon's _England_, ed.
1836, i. 201 and iii. 275.
[1002] The unwilling gratitude of base mankind. POPE. [_Imitations of
Horace_, 2 _Epis_. i. 14.] BOSWELL.
[1003] Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, i. 246-253) gives a curious account of
Lord Loudoun, who was general in America about the year 1756.
'Indecision,' he says, 'was one of the strongest features of his
character.' He kept back the packet-boats from day to day because he
could not make up his mind to send his despatches. At one time there
were three boats waiting, one of which was kept with cargo and
passengers on board three months beyond its time. Pitt at length
recalled him, because 'he never heard from him, and could not know what
he was doing.'
[1004] See Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._ xi. 161 for an account of a
controversy about the identity of this writer with an historian of the
same name.
[1005] He had paid but little attention to his own rule. See _ante_, ii.
119.
[1006] 'I believe that for all the castles which I have seen beyond the
Tweed, the ruins yet remaining of some one of those which the English
built in Wales would supply Materials.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 152.
[1007] See _ante_, p. 40, note 4.
[1008] Johnson described her as 'a lady who for many years gave the laws
of elegance to Scotland.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 200. Allan Ramsay
dedicated to her his _Gentle Shepherd_, and W. Hamilton, of Bangour,
wrote to her verses on the presentation of Ramsay's poem. Hamilton's
_Poems_, p. 23.
[1009] See _ante_, ii. 66, and iii. 188.
[1010] 'She called Boswell the boy: "yes, Madam," said I, "we will send
him to school." "He is already," said she, "in a good school;" and
expressed her hope of his improvement. At last night came, and I was
sorry to leave her.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 200. See _ante_, iii. 366.
[1011] See _ante_, pp. 318, 362.
[1012] Burns, who was in his fifteenth year, was at this time living at
Ayr, about twelve miles away. When later on he moved to Mauchline, he
and Boswell became much nearer neighbours.
[1013] He had, however, married again. _Ante_, ii. 140, note I. It is
curious that Boswell in this narrative does not mention his step-mother.
[1014]
'Asper
Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit.'
'Though rude his mirth, yet laboured to maintain
The solemn grandeur of the tragic scene.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet_. l. 221.
[1015] See _ante_, iii. 65, and v. 97.
[1016] See _ante_, iv. 163, 241.
[1017] Johnson (_Works_, vii. 425) says of Addison's dedication of the
opera of _Rosamond_ to the Duchess of Marlborough, that 'it was an
instance of servile absurdity, to be exceeded only by Joshua Barnes's
dedication of a Greek _Anacreon_ to the Duke.' For Barnes see _ante_,
iii. 284, and iv. 19.
[1018] William Baxter, the editor of _Anacreon_, was the nephew of
Richard Baxter, the nonconformist divine.
[1019] He says of Auchinleck (_Works_, ix. 158) that 'like all the
western side of Scotland, it is _incommoded_ by very frequent rain.' 'In
all September we had, according to Boswell's register, only one day and
a half of fair weather; and in October perhaps not more.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 182.
[1020] 'By-the-bye,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'I am far from being of the
number of those angry Scotsmen who imputed to Johnson's national
prejudices all or a great part of the report he has given of our country
in his _Voyage to the Hebrides_. I remember the Highlands ten or twelve
years later, and no one can conceive of 'how much that could have been
easily remedied travellers had to complain.' _Croker Corres_. ii. 34
[1021] 'Of these islands it must be confessed, that they have not many
allurements but to the mere lover of naked nature. The inhabitants are
thin, provisions are scarce, and desolation and penury give little
pleasure.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 153. In an earlier passage (p. 138),
in describing a rough ride in Mull, he says:--'We were now long enough
acquainted with hills and heath to have lost the emotion that they once
raised, whether pleasing or painful, and had our minds employed only on
our own fatigue.'
[1022] See _ante_, ii. 225.
[1023] In like manner Wesley said of Rousseau:--'Sure a more consummate
coxcomb never saw the sun.... He is a cynic all over. So indeed is his
brother-infidel, Voltaire; and well-nigh as great a coxcomb.' Wesley's
_Journal,_, ed. 1830, iii. 386.
[1024] This gentleman, though devoted to the study of grammar and
dialecticks, was not so absorbed in it as to be without a sense of
pleasantry, or to be offended at his favourite topicks being treated
lightly. I one day met him in the street, as I was hastening to the
House of Lords, and told him, I was sorry I could not stop, being rather
too late to attend an appeal of the Duke of Hamilton against Douglas. 'I
thought (said he) their contest had been over long ago.' I answered,
'The contest concerning Douglas's filiation was over long ago; but the
contest now is, who shall have the estate.' Then, assuming the air of
'an ancient sage philosopher,' I proceeded thus: 'Were I to _predicate_
concerning him, I should say, the contest formerly was, What _is_ he?
The contest now is, What _has_ he?'--'Right, (replied Mr. Harris,
smiling,) you have done with _quality_, and have got into
_quantity_.' BOSWELL.
[1025] Most likely Sir A. Macdonald. _Ante_, p. 148.
[1026] Boswell wrote on March 18,1775:--'Mr. Johnson, when enumerating
our Club, observed of some of us, that they talked from books,--Langton
in particular. "Garrick," he said, "would talk from books, if he talked
seriously." "_I_," said he, "do not talk from books; _you_ do not talk
from books." This was a compliment to my originality; but I am afraid I
have not read books enough to be able to talk from them.' _Letters of
Boswell_, p. 181. See _ante_, ii. 360, where Johnson said to Boswell:--
'I don't believe you have borrowed from Waller. I wish you would enable
yourself to borrow more;' and i. 105, where he described 'a man of a
great deal of knowledge of the world, fresh from life, not strained
through books.'
[1027] 'Lord Auchinleck has built a house of hewn stone, very stately
and durable, and has advanced the value of his lands with great
tenderness to his tenants. I was, however, less delighted with the
elegance of the modern mansion, than with the sullen dignity of the old
castle.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 159. 'The house is scarcely yet
finished, but very magnificent and very convenient.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 201. See _ante_, i. 462.
[1028] See _ante_, ii. 413, and v. 91.
[1029] The relation, it should seem, was remote even for Scotland. Their
common ancestor was Robert Bruce, some sixteen generations back.
Boswell's mother's grandmother was a Bruce of the Earl of Kincardine's
family, and so also was his father's mother. Rogers's _Boswelliana_,
pp. 4, 5.
[1030] He refers to Johnson's pension, which was given nearly two years
after George Ill's accession. _Ante_, i. 372.
[1031] _Ante_, p. 51.
[1032] He repeated this advice in 1777. _Ante_, iii. 207.
[1033] 'Of their black cattle some are without horns, called by the
Scots _humble_ cows, as we call a bee, an _humble_ bee, that wants a
sting. Whether this difference be specifick, or accidental, though we
inquired with great diligence, we could not be informed.' Johnson's
_Works_, ix. 78.
Johnson, in his _Dictionary_, gives the right derivation of humble-bee,
from _hum_ and _bee_. The word _Humble-cow_ is found in _Guy Mannering_,
ed. 1860, iii. 91:--'"Of a surety," said Sampson, "I deemed I heard his
horse's feet." "That," said John, with a broad grin, "was Grizzel
chasing the humble-cow out of the close."'
[1034] 'Even the cattle have not their usual beauty or noble head.'
Church and Brodribb's _Tacitus_.
[1035] 'The peace you seek is here--where is it not? If your own mind
be equal to its lot.' CROKER. Horace, I _Epistles_, xi. 29.
[1036] Horace, I _Epistles_, xviii. 112.
[1037] This and the next paragraph are not in the first edition. The
paragraph that follows has been altered so as to hide the fact that the
minister spoken of was Mr. Dun. Originally it stood:--'Mr. Dun, though a
man of sincere good principles as a presbyterian divine, discovered,'
&c. First edition, p. 478.
[1038] See _ante_, p. 120.
[1039] Old Lord Auchinleck was an able lawyer, a good scholar, after the
manner of Scotland, and highly valued his own advantages as a man of
good estate and ancient family; and, moreover, he was a strict
presbyterian and Whig of the old Scottish cast. This did not prevent his
being a terribly proud aristocrat; and great was the contempt he
entertained and expressed for his son James, for the nature of his
friendships and the character of the personages of whom he was _engoué_
one after another. 'There's nae hope for Jamie, mon,' he said to a
friend. 'Jamie is gaen clean gyte. What do you think, mon? He's done wi'
Paoli--he's off wi' the land-louping scoundrel of a Corsican; and whose
tail do you think he has pinned himself to now, mon?' Here the old judge
summoned up a sneer of most sovereign contempt. 'A _dominie_, mon--an
auld dominie: he keeped a schule, and cau'd it an acaadamy.' Probably if
this had been reported to Johnson, he would have felt it more galling,
for he never much liked to think of that period of his life [_ante_,
i.97, note 2]; it would have aggravated his dislike of Lord Auchinleck's
Whiggery and presbyterianism. These the old lord carried to such a
height, that once, when a countryman came in to state some justice
business, and being required to make his oath, declined to do so before
his lordship, because he was not a _covenanted_ magistrate. 'Is that
a'your objection, mon?' said the judge; 'come your ways in here, and
we'll baith of us tak the solemn league and covenant together.' The oath
was accordingly agreed and sworn to by both, and I dare say it was the
last time it ever received such homage. It may be surmised how far Lord
Auchinleck, such as he is here described, was likely to suit a high Tory
and episcopalian like Johnson. As they approached Auchinleck, Boswell
conjured Johnson by all the ties of regard, and in requital of the
services he had rendered him upon his tour, that he would spare two
subjects in tenderness to his father's prejudices; the first related to
Sir John Pringle, president of the Royal Society, about whom there was
then some dispute current: the second concerned the general question of
Whig and Tory. Sir John Pringle, as Boswell says, escaped, but the
controversy between Tory and Covenanter raged with great fury, and ended
in Johnson's pressing upon the old judge the question, what good
Cromwell, of whom he had said something derogatory, had ever done to his
country; when, after being much tortured, Lord Auchinleck at last spoke
out, 'God, Doctor! he gart kings ken that they had a _lith_ in their
neck'--he taught kings they had a _joint_ in their necks. Jamie then
set to mediating between his father and the philosopher, and availing
himself of the judge's sense of hospitality, which was punctilious,
reduced the debate to more order. WALTER SCOTT. Paoli had visited
Auchinleck. Boswell wrote to Garrick on Sept. 18, 1771:--'I have just
been enjoying the very great happiness of a visit from my illustrious
friend, Pascal Paoli. He was two nights at Auchinleck, and you may
figure the joy of my worthy father and me at seeing the Corsican hero in
our romantic groves.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 436. Johnson was not blind to
Cromwell's greatness, for he says (_Works_, vii. 197), that 'he wanted
nothing to raise him to heroick excellence but virtue.' Lord
Auchinleck's famous saying had been anticipated by Quin, who, according
to Davies (_Life of Garrick_, ii. 115), had said that 'on a thirtieth of
January every king in Europe would rise with a crick in his neck.'
[1040] See _ante_, p. 252.
[1041] James Durham, born 1622, died 1658, wrote many theological works.
Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. In the _Brit. Mus. Cata_. I can find no work by
him on the _Galatians_; Lord Auchinleck's triumph therefore was, it
seems, more artful than honest.
[1042] Gray, it should seem, had given the name earlier. His friend
Bonstetten says that about the year 1769 he was walking with him, when
Gray 'exclaimed with some bitterness, "Look, look, Bonstetten! the great
bear! There goes _Ursa Major_!" This was Johnson. Gray could not abide
him.' Sir Egerton Brydges, quoted in Gosse's _Gray_, iii. 371. For the
epithet _bear_ applied to Johnson see _ante_, ii. 66, 269, note i, and
iv. 113, note 2. Boswell wrote on June 19, 1775:--'My father harps on my
going over Scotland with a brute (think, how shockingly erroneous!), and
wandering (or some such phrase) to London.' _Letters of Boswell_,
p. 207.
[1043] It is remarkable that Johnson in his _Life of Blackmore_
[_Works_, viii. 42] calls the imaginary Mr. Johnson of the _Lay
Monastery_ 'a constellation of excellence.' CROKER.
[1044] Page 121. BOSWELL. See also _ante_, iii. 336.
[1045] 'The late Sir Alexander Boswell,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'was a
proud man, and, like his grandfather, thought that his father lowered
himself by his deferential suit and service to Johnson. I have observed
he disliked any allusion to the book or to Johnson himself, and I have
heard that Johnson's fine picture by Sir Joshua was sent upstairs out of
the sitting apartments at Auchinleck.' _Croker Corres_. ii. 32. This
portrait, which was given by Sir Joshua to Boswell (Taylor's _Reynolds_,
i. 147), is now in the possession of Mr. Charles Morrison.
[1046] 'I have always said that first Whig was the devil.' _Ante_, iii.
326
[1047] See _ante_, ii. 26.
[1048] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 266) has paid this tribute. 'Lord
Elibank,' he writes, 'had a mind that embraced the greatest variety of
topics, and produced the most original remarks. ... He had been a
lieutenant-colonel in the army and was at the siege of Carthagena, of
which he left an elegant account (which I'm afraid is lost). He was a
Jacobite, and a member of the famous Cocoa-tree Club, and resigned his
commission on some disgust.' Dr. Robertson and John Home were his
neighbours in the country, 'who made him change or soften down many of
his original opinions, and prepared him for becoming a most agreeable
member of the Literary Society of Edinburgh.' Smollett in _Humphry
Clinker_ (Letter of July 18), describes him as 'a nobleman whom I have
long revered for his humanity and universal intelligence, over and above
the entertainment arising from the originality of his character.'
Boswell, in the _London Mag._ 1779, p. 179, thus mentions the Cocoa-tree
Club:--'But even at Court, though I see much external obeisance, I do
not find congenial sentiments to warm my heart; and except when I have
the conversation of a very few select friends, I am never so well as
when I sit down to a dish of coffee in the Cocoa Tree, sacred of old to
loyalty, look round me to men of ancient families, and please myself
with the consolatory thought that there is perhaps more good in the
nation than I know.'
[1049] Johnson's _Works_, vii. 380. See _ante_, i. 81.
[1050] See _ante_, p. 53.
[1051] The Mitre tavern. _Ante_, i. 425.
[1052] Of this Earl of Kelly Boswell records the following pun:--'At a
dinner at Mr. Crosbie's, when the company were very merry, the Rev. Dr.
Webster told them he was sorry to go away so early, but was obliged to
catch the tide, to cross the Firth of Forth. "Better stay a little,"
said Thomas Earl of Kelly, "till you be half-seas over."' Rogers's
_Boswelliana_, p. 325.
[1053] See _ante_, i. 354.
[1054] In the first edition, _and his son the advocate_. Under this son,
A. F. Tytler, afterwards a Lord of Session by the title of Lord
Woodhouselee, Scott studied history at Edinburgh College. Lockhart's
_Scott_, ed. 1839, i. 59, 278.
[1055] See _ante_, i. 396, and ii. 296.
[1056] 'If we know little of the ancient Highlanders, let us not fill
the vacuity with Ossian. If we have not searched the Magellanick
regions, let us however forbear to people them with Patagons.' Johnson's
_Works_, ix. 116. Horace Walpole wrote on May 22, 1766 (_Letters_, iv.
500):--'Oh! but we have discovered a race of giants! Captain Byron has
found a nation of Brobdignags on the coast of Patagonia; the inhabitants
on foot taller than he and his men on horseback. I don't indeed know how
he and his sailors came to be riding in the South Seas. However, it is a
terrible blow to the Irish, for I suppose all our dowagers now will be
for marrying Patagonians.'
[1057] I desire not to be understood as agreeing _entirely_ with the
opinions of Dr. Johnson, which I relate without any remark. The many
imitations, however, of _Fingal_, that have been published, confirm this
observation in a considerable degree. BOSWELL. Johnson said to Sir
Joshua of Ossian:--'Sir, a man might write such stuff for ever, if he
would _abandon_ his mind to it.' _Ante_, iv. 183.
[1058] In the first edition (p. 485) this paragraph ran thus:--'Young
Mr. Tytler stepped briskly forward, and said, "_Fingal_ is certainly
genuine; for I have heard a great part of it repeated in the
original."--Dr. Johnson indignantly asked him, "Sir, do you understand
the original?"--_Tytler_. "No, Sir."--_Johnson_. "Why, then, we see to
what this testimony comes:--Thus it is."--He afterwards said to me, "Did
you observe the wonderful confidence with which young Tytler advanced,
with his front already _brased_?"'
[1059] For _in company_ we should perhaps read _in the company_.
[1060] In the first edition, _this gentleman's talents and integrity
are_, &c.
[1061] 'A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love
Scotland better than truth: he will always love it better than inquiry;
and if falsehood flatters his vanity, will not be very diligent to
detect it.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 116. See _ante_, ii. 311.
[1062] See _ante_, p. 164.
[1063] See _ante_, p. 242.
[1064] See _ante_, iv. 253.
[1065] Lord Chief Baron Geoffrey Gilbert published in 1760 a book on the
Law of Evidence.
[1066] See _ante_, ii. 302.
[1067] Three instances, _ante_, pp. 160, 320.
[1068] See _ante_, ii. 318.
[1069] An instance is given in Sacheverell's _Account of the Isle of
Man_, ed. 1702, p. 14.
[1070] Mr. J. T. Clark, the Keeper of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh,
obligingly informs me that in the margin of the copy of Boswell's
_Journal_ in that Library it is stated that this cause was _Wilson
versus Maclean_.
[1071] See _ante_, iv. 74, note 3.
[1072] See _ante_, iii 69, 183.
[1073] He is described in _Guy Mannering_, ed. 1860, iv. 98.
[1074] See _ante_, p. 50.
[1075] See _ante_, i. 458.
[1076] 'We now observe that the Methodists, where they scatter their
opinions, represent themselves as preaching the Gospel to unconverted
nations; and enthusiasts of all kinds have been inclined to disguise
their particular tenets with pompous appellations, and to imagine
themselves the great instruments of salvation.' Johnson's _Works_,
vi. 417.
[1077]
Through various hazards and events we move.
Dryden, [_Aeneid_, I. 204]. BOSWELL.
[1078]
Long labours both by sea and land he bore.
Dryden, [_Aeneid_, I. 3]. BOSWELL.
[1079] The Jesuits, headed by Francis Xavier, made their appearance in
Japan in 1549. The first persecution was in 1587; it was followed by
others in 1590, 1597, 1637, 1638. _Encyclo. Brit_. 8th edit. xii. 697.
[1080] 'They congratulate our return as if we had been with Phipps or
Banks; I am ashamed of their salutations.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 203.
Phipps had gone this year to the Arctic Ocean (_ante_, p. 236), and
Banks had accompanied Captain Cook in 1768-1771. Johnson says however
(_Works_, ix. 84), that 'to the southern inhabitants of Scotland the
state of the mountains and the islands is equally unknown with that of
Borneo or Sumatra.' See _ante_, p. 283, note 1, where Scott says that
'the whole expedition was highly perilous.' Smollett, in _Humphry
Clinker_ (Letter of July 18), says of Scotland in general:--'The people
at the other end of the island know as little of Scotland as of Japan.'
[1081] In sailing from Sky to Col. _Ante_, p. 280.
[1082] Johnson, four years later, suggested to Boswell that he should
write this history. _Ante_, iii. 162, 414.
[1083] Voltaire was born in 1694; his _Louis XIV._ was published in 1751
or 1752.
[1084] A society for debate in Edinburgh, consisting of the most eminent
men. BOSWELL. It was founded in 1754 by Allan Ramsay the painter, aided
by Robertson, Hume, and Smith. Dugald Stewart (_Life of Robertson_, ed.
1802, p. 5) says that 'it subsisted in vigour for six or seven years'
and produced debates, such as have not often been heard in modern
assemblies.' See also Dr. A. Carlyle's _Auto_. p. 297.
[1085] 'As for Maclaurin's imitation of a _made dish_, it was a wretched
attempt.' _Ante,_ i. 469.
[1086] It was of Lord Elibank's French cook 'that he exclaimed with
vehemence, "I'd throw such a rascal into the river."'_Ib._
[1087] 'He praised _Gordon's palates_ with a warmth of expression which
might have done honour to more important subjects.' _Ib._
[1088] For the alarm he gave to Mrs. Boswell before this supper, see
_ib._
[1089] On Dr. Boswell's death, in 1780, Boswell wrote of him:--'He was a
very good scholar, knew a great many things, had an elegant taste, and
was very affectionate; but he had no conduct. His money was all gone.
And do you know he was not confined to one woman. He had a strange kind
of religion; but I flatter myself he will be ere long, if he is not
already, in Heaven.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 258.
[1090] Johnson had written the _Life_ of 'the great Boerhaave,' as he
called him. _Works_, vi. 292.
[1091] 'At Edinburgh,' he wrote, 'I passed some days with men of
learning, whose names want no advancement from my commemoration, or with
women of elegance, which, perhaps, disclaims a pedant's praise.'
Johnson's _Works_, ix. 159.
[1092] See _ante_, iv. 178.
[1093] 'My acquaintance,' wrote Richardson (_Corres_. iv. 317), 'lies
chiefly among the ladies; I care not who knows it.' Mrs. Piozzi, in a
marginal note on her own copy of the _Piozzi Letters_, says:--'Dr.
Johnson said, that if Mr. Richardson had lived till _I_ came out, my
praises would have added two or three years to his life. "For," says Dr.
Johnson, "that fellow died merely from want of change among his
flatterers: he perished for want of _more_, like a man obliged to
breathe the same air till it is exhausted."' Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 311.
In her _Journey_, i. 265, she says:--'Richardson had seen little, and
Johnson has often told me that he had read little.' See _ante_, iv. 28.
[1094] He may live like a gentleman, but he must not 'call himself
_Farmer_, and go about with a little round hat.' _Ante_, p. 111.
[1095] Boswell italicises this word, I think, because Johnson objected
to the misuse of it. '"Sir," said Mr. Edwards, "I remember you would not
let us say _prodigious_ at college."' _Ante_, iii. 303.
[1096] As I have been scrupulously exact in relating anecdotes
concerning other persons, I shall not withhold any part of this story,
however ludicrous.--I was so successful in this boyish frolick, that the
universal cry of the galleries was, '_Encore_ the cow! _Encore_ the
cow!' In the pride of my heart, I attempted imitations of some other
animals, but with very inferior effect. My reverend friend, anxious for
my _fame_, with an air of the utmost gravity and earnestness, addressed
me thus: 'My dear sir, I would _confine_ myself to the _cow_.' BOSWELL.
Blair's advice was expressed more emphatically, and with a peculiar
_burr_--'_Stick to the cow_, mon.' WALTER SCOTT. Boswell's record, which
moreover is far more humorous, is much more trustworthy than Scott's
tradition.
[1097] Mme. de Sévigné in describing a death wrote:--'Cela nous fit voir
qu'on joue long-temps la comédie, et qu'à la mort on dit la vérité.'
Letter of June 24, 1672. Addison says:--'The end of a man's life is
often compared to the winding up of a well-written play, where the
principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate is which
they undergo.... That innocent mirth which had been so conspicuous in
Sir Thomas More's life did not forsake him to the last. His death was of
a piece with his life. There was nothing in it new, forced, or
affected.' _The Spectator_, No. 349. Young also thought, or at least,
wrote differently.
'A death-bed's a detector of the heart.
Here tired dissimulation drops her mask.'
_Night Thoughts, ii._
'"Mirabeau dramatized his death" was the happy expression of the Bishop
of Autun (Talleyrand).' Dumont's _Mirabeau_, p. 251. See _ante_,
iii. 154.
[1098] See _ante_, i. 408, 447; and ii. 219, 329.
[1099] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 291) says of Blair's conversation that
'it was so infantine that many people thought it impossible, at first
sight, that he could be a man of sense or genius. He was as eager about
a new paper to his wife's drawing-room, or his own new wig, as about a
new tragedy or a new epic poem.' He adds, that he was 'capable of the
most profound conversation, when circumstances led to it. He had not the
least desire to shine, but was delighted beyond measure to shew other
people in their best guise to his friends. "Did not I shew you the lion
well to-day?" used he to say after the exhibition of a remarkable
stranger.' He had no wit, and for humour hardly a relish. Robertson's
reputation for wisdom may have been easily won. Dr. A. Carlyle says
(_ib_. p. 287):--'Robertson's translations and paraphrases on other
people's thoughts were so beautiful and so harmless that I never saw
anybody lay claim to their own.' He may have flattered Johnson by
dexterously echoing his sentiments.
[1100] In the _Marmor Norfolciense (ante_, i. 141) Johnson says:--'I
know that the knowledge of the alphabet is so disreputable among these
gentlemen [of the army], that those who have by ill-fortune formerly
been taught it have partly forgot it by disuse, and partly concealed it
from the world, to avoid the railleries and insults to which their
education might make them liable.' Johnson's _Works,_ vi. III. See
_ante_, iii. 265.
[1101] 'One of the young ladies had her slate before her, on which I
wrote a question consisting of three figures to be multiplied by two
figures. She looked upon it, and quivering her fingers in a manner which
I thought very pretty, but of which I knew not whether it was art or
play, multiplied the sum regularly in two lines, observing the decimal
place; but did not add the two lines together, probably disdaining so
easy an operation.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 161.
[1102]
'Words gigantic.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet._. 1. 97.
[1103] One of the best criticks of our age 'does not wish to prevent the
admirers of the incorrect and nerveless style which generally prevailed
for a century before Dr. Johnson's energetick writings were known, from
enjoying the laugh that this story may produce, in which he is very
ready to join them.' He, however, requests me to observe, that 'my
friend very properly chose a _long_ word on this occasion, not, it is
believed, from any predilection for polysyllables, (though he certainly
had a due respect for them,) but in order to put Mr. Braidwood's skill
to the strictest test, and to try the efficacy of his instruction by the
most difficult exertion of the organs of his pupils.' BOSWELL. 'One of
the best critics of our age' is, I believe, Malone. See _ante_, p.
78, note 5.
[1104] It was here that Lord Auchinleck called him _Ursa Major. Ante_,
p. 384.
[1105] See _ante_, iii. 266, and v. 20, where 'Mr. Crosbie said that the
English are better animals than the Scots.'
[1106] Johnson himself had laughed at them (_ante_, ii. 210) and accused
them of foppery (_ante_, ii. 237).
[1107] Johnson said, 'I never think I have hit hard, unless it rebounds
(_ante_, ii. 335), and, 'I would rather be attacked than unnoticed'
(_ante_, iii. 375). When he was told of a caricature 'of the nine muses
flogging him round Parnassus,' he said, 'Sir, I am very glad to hear
this. I hope the day will never arrive when I shall neither be the
object of calumny or ridicule, for then I shall be neglected and
forgotten.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 837. See _ante_, ii. 61, and pp. 174,
273. 'There was much laughter when M. de Lesseps mentioned that on his
first visit to England the publisher who brought out the report of his
meeting charged, as the first item of his bill, "£50 for attacking the
book in order to make it succeed." "Since then," observed M. de Lesseps,
"I have been attacked gratuitously, and have got on without paying."'
The Times, Feb. 19, 1884.
[1108]
'To wing my flight to fame.'
DRYDEN. Virgil, _Georgics_, iii. 9.
[1109] On Nov. 12 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'We came hither (to
Edinburgh) on the ninth of this month. I long to come under your care,
but for some days cannot decently get away.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 202.
[1110] He would have been astonished had he known that a few miles from
Edinburgh he had passed through two villages of serfs. The coal-hewers
and salt-makers of Tranent and Preston-Pans were still sold with the
soil. 'In Scotland domestic slavery is unknown, except so far as regards
the coal-hewers and salt-makers, whose condition, it must be confessed,
bears some resemblance to slavery; because all who have once acted in
either of the capacities are compellable to serve, and fixed to their
respective places of employment during life.' Hargrave's _Argument in
the case of James Sommersett_, 1772. Had Johnson known this he might
have given as his toast when in company with some very grave men at
_Edinburgh_:--'Here's to the next insurrection of the slaves in
_Scotland_.' _Ante_, iii. 200.
[1111] The year following in the House of Commons he railed at the
London booksellers, 'who, he positively asserted, entirely governed the
newspapers.' 'For his part,' he added, 'he had ordered that no English
newspaper should come within his doors for three months.' _Parl. Hist_.
xvii. 1090.
[1112] See _ante_, iii. 373.
[1113] 'At the latter end of 1630 Ben Jonson went on foot into Scotland,
on purpose to visit Drummond. His adventures in this journey he wrought
into a poem; but that copy, with many other pieces, was accidentally
burned.' Whalley's _Ben Jonson_, Preface, p. xlvi.
[1114] Perhaps the same woman showed the chapel who was there 29 years
later, when Scott visited it. One of his friends 'hoped that they might,
as habitual visitors, escape hearing the usual endless story of the
silly old woman that showed the ruins'; but Scott answered, 'There is a
pleasure in the song which none but the songstress knows, and by telling
her we know it all ready we should make the poor devil unhappy.'
Lockharts _Scott_, ed. 1839, ii. 106.
[1115] _ O rare Ben Jonson_ is on Jonson's tomb in Westminster Abbey.
[1116] See _ante_, ii. 365.
[1117] 'Essex was at that time confined to the same chamber of the Tower
from which his father Lord Capel had been led to death, and in which his
wife's grandfather had inflicted a voluntary death upon himself. When he
saw his friend carried to what he reckoned certain fate, their common
enemies enjoying the spectacle, and reflected that it was he who had
forced Lord Howard upon the confidence of Russel, he retired, and, by a
_Roman death_, put an end to his misery.' Dalrymple's _Memoirs of Great
Britain and Ireland_, vol. i. p. 36. BOSWELL. In the original after 'his
wife's grandfather,' is added 'Lord Northumberland.' It was his wife's
great-grandfather, the eighth Earl of Northumberland. He killed himself
in 1585. Burke's _Peerage_.
[1118] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 293) says of Robertson and
Blair:--'Having been bred at a time when the common people thought to
play with cards or dice was a sin, and everybody thought it an indecorum
in clergymen, they could neither of them play at golf or bowls, and far
less at cards or backgammon, and on that account were very unhappy when
from home in friends' houses in the country in rainy weather. As I had
set the first example of playing at cards at home with unlocked door
[Carlyle was a minister], and so relieved the clergy from ridicule on
that side, they both learned to play at whist after they were sixty.'
See _ante_, iii. 23.
[1119] See _ante_, i. 149, and v. 350.
[1120] See _ante_, iv. 54.
[1121] He wrote to Boswell on Nov. 16, 1776 (_ante_, iii. 93):--'The
expedition to the Hebrides was the most pleasant journey that I ever
made.' In his _Diary_ he recorded on Jan. 9, 1774:--'In the autumn I
took a journey to the Hebrides, but my mind was not free from
perturbation.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 136. The following letter to Dr. Taylor
I have copied from the original in the possession of my friend Mr. M. M.
Holloway:--
'DEAR SIR,
'When I was at Edinburgh I had a letter from you, telling me that in
answer to some enquiry you were informed that I was in the Sky. I was
then I suppose in the western islands of Scotland; I set out on the
northern expedition August 6, and came back to Fleet-street, November
26. I have seen a new region.
'I have been upon seven of the islands, and probably should have visited
many more, had we not begun our journey so late in the year, that the
stormy weather came upon us, and the storms have I believe for about
five months hardly any intermission.
'Your Letter told me that you were better. When you write do not forget
to confirm that account. I had very little ill health while I was on the
journey, and bore rain and wind tolerably well. I had a cold and
deafness only for a few days, and those days I passed at a good house. I
have traversed the east coast of Scotland from south to north from
Edinburgh to Inverness, and the west coast from north to south, from the
Highlands to Glasgow, and am come back as I went,
'Sir,
'Your affectionate humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 15, 1774.
'To the Reverend Dr. Taylor,
'in Ashbourn,
'Derbyshire.'
[1122] Johnson speaking of this tour on April 10, 1783, said:--'I got an
acquisition of more ideas by it than by anything that I remember.'
_Ante_, iv. 199.
[1123] See _ante_, p. 48.
[1124] See _ante_, i. 408, 443, note 2, and ii. 303.
[1125] 'It may be doubted whether before the Union any man between
Edinburgh and England had ever set a tree.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 8.
[1126] See _ante_, p. 69.
[1127] Lord Balmerino's estate was forfeited to the Crown on his
conviction for high treason in 1746 (_ante_, i. 180).
[1128] 'I know not that I ever heard the wind so loud in any other
place; and Mr. Boswell observed that its noise was all its own, for
there were no trees to increase it.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 122. See
_ante_, p. 304.
[1129] See _ante_, ii. 300.
[1130] 'Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. This faculty
of seeing things out of sight is local and commonly useless. It is a
breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason or
perceptible benefit.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 106.
[1131] 'To the confidence of these objections it may be replied... that
second sight is only wonderful because it is rare, for, considered in
itself, it involves no more difficulty than dreams.' _Ib._
[1132] The fossilist of last century is the geologist of this. Neither
term is in Johnson's _Dictionary_, but Johnson in his _Journey (Works_,
ix. 43) speaks of 'Mr. Janes the fossilist.'
[1133] _Ib_. p. 157.
[1134] _Ib_. p. 6. I do not see anything silly in the story. It is
however better told in a letter to Mrs. Thrale. _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 112.
[1135] Mr. Orme, one of the ablest historians of this age, is of the
same opinion. He said to me, 'There are in that book thoughts, which, by
long revolution in the great mind of Johnson, have been formed and
polished--like pebbles rolled in the ocean.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii.
300, and iii. 284.
[1136] See _ante_, iii. 301.
[1137] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 158) mentions 'a national combination so
invidious that their friends cannot defend it.' See _ante_, ii.
307, 311.
[1138] See _ante_, p. 269, note 1.
[1139] Every reader will, I am sure, join with me in warm admiration of
the truly patriotic writer of this letter. I know not which most to
applaud--that good sense and liberality of mind, which could see and
admit the defects of his native country, to which no man is a more
zealous friend:--or that candour, which induced him to give just praise
to the minister whom he honestly and strenuously opposed. BOSWELL.
[1140] The original MS. is now in my possession. BOSWELL.
[1141] The passage that gave offence was as follows:--'Mr. Macleod is
the proprietor of the islands of Raasay, Rona, and Fladda, and possesses
an extensive district in Sky. The estate has not during four hundred
years gained or lost a single acre. He acknowledges Macleod of Dunvegan
as his chief, though his ancestors have formerly disputed the
pre-eminence.' First edition, p. 132. The second edition was not
published till the year after Johnson's death. In it the passage remains
unchanged. To it the following note was prefixed: 'Strand, Oct. 26,
1785. Since this work was printed off, the publisher, having been
informed that the author some years ago had promised the Laird of Raasay
to correct in a future edition a passage concerning him, thinks it a
justice due to that gentleman to insert here the advertisement relative
to this matter, which was published by Dr. Johnson's desire in the
Edinburgh newspapers in the year 1775, and which has been lately
reprinted in Mr. Boswell's _Tour to the Hebrides_.' (It is not unlikely
that the publication of Boswell's _Tour_ occasioned a fresh demand for
Johnson's _Journey_.) In later editions all the words after 'a single
acre' are silently struck out. Johnson's _Works_, ix. 55. See
_ante_, ii. 382.
[1142] Rasay was highly gratified, and afterwards visited and dined with
Dr. Johnson at his house in London. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on May 12,
1775:--'I have offended; and what is stranger, have justly offended, the
nation of Rasay. If they could come hither, they would be as fierce as
the Americans. _Rasay_ has written to Boswell an account of the injury
done him by representing his house as subordinate to that of Dunvegan.
Boswell has his letter, and, I believe, copied my answer. I have
appeased him, if a degraded chief can possibly be appeased: but it will
be thirteen days--days of resentment and discontent--before my
recantation can reach him. Many a dirk will imagination, during that
interval, fix in my heart. I really question if at this time my life
would not be in danger, if distance did not secure it. Boswell will find
his way to Streatham before he goes, and will detail this great affair.'
_Piozzi Letters_, i. 216.
[1143] In like manner he communicated to Sir William Forbes part of his
journal from which he made the _Life of Johnson_. _Ante_, iii. 208.
[1144] In justice both to Sir William Forbes, and myself, it is proper
to mention, that the papers which were submitted to his perusal
contained only an account of our Tour from the time that Dr. Johnson and
I set out from Edinburgh (p. 58), and consequently did not contain the
elogium on Sir William Forbes, (p. 24), which he never saw till this
book appeared in print; nor did he even know, when he wrote the above
letter, that this _Journal_ was to be published. BOSWELL. This note is
not in the first edition.
[1145] _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 1.
[1146] Both _Nonpareil_ and _Bon Chretien_ are in Johnson's
_Dictionary_; _Nonpareil_, is defined as _a kind of apple_, and _Bon
Chretien_ as _a species of pear_.
[1147] See _ante_, p. 311.
[1148] See _ante_, iv. 9.
[1149] 'Dryden's contemporaries, however they reverenced his genius,
left his life unwritten; and nothing therefore can be known beyond what
casual mention and uncertain tradition have supplied.' Johnson's
_Works_, vii. 245. See _ante_, iii. 71.
[1150]
'Before great Agamemnon reign'd
Reign'd kings as great as he, and brave
Whose huge ambition's now contain'd
In the small compass of a grave;
In endless night they sleep, unwept, unknown,
No bard had they to make all time their own.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, iv. 9. 25.
[1151] Having found, on a revision of the first edition of this work,
that, notwithstanding my best care, a few observations had escaped me,
which arose from the instant impression, the publication of which might
perhaps be considered as passing the bounds of a strict decorum, I
immediately ordered that they should be omitted in the subsequent
editions. I was pleased to find that they did not amount in the whole to
a page. If any of the same kind are yet left, it is owing to
inadvertence alone, no man being more unwilling to give pain to others
than I am.
A contemptible scribbler, of whom I have learned no more than that,
after having disgraced and deserted the clerical character, he picks up
in London a scanty livelihood by scurrilous lampoons under a feigned
name, has impudently and falsely asserted that the passages omitted were
_defamatory_, and that the omission was not voluntary, but compulsory.
The last insinuation I took the trouble publickly to disprove; yet, like
one of Pope's dunces, he persevered in 'the lie o'erthrown.' [_Prologue
to the Satires_, l. 350.] As to the charge of defamation, there is an
obvious and certain mode of refuting it. Any person who thinks it worth
while to compare one edition with the other, will find that the passages
omitted were not in the least degree of that nature, but exactly such as
I have represented them in the former part of this note, the hasty
effusion of momentary feelings, which the delicacy of politeness should
have suppressed. BOSWELL. In the second edition this note ended at the
first paragraph, the latter part being added in the third. For the 'few
observations omitted' see _ante_, pp. 148, 381, 388.
The 'contemptible scribbler' was, I believe, John Wolcot, better known
by his assumed name of Peter Pindar. He had been a clergyman. In his
_Epistle to Boswell (Works_, i. 219), he says in reference to the
passages about Sir A. Macdonald (afterwards Lord Macdonald):--'A letter
of severe remonstrance was sent to Mr. B., who, in consequence, omitted
in the second edition of his _Journal_ what is so generally pleasing to
the public, viz., the scandalous passages relative to that nobleman.' It
was in a letter to the _Gent. Mag._ 1786, p. 285, that Boswell
'publickly disproved the insinuation' made 'in a late scurrilous
publication' that these passages 'were omitted in consequence of a
letter from his Lordship. Nor was any application,' he continues, 'made
to me by the nobleman alluded to at any time to make any alteration in
my _Journal_.'
[1152]
'Nothing extenuate
Nor set down aught in malice.'
_Othello_, act v. sc. 2.
[1153] See _ante_, i. 189, note 2, 296, 297; and Johnson's _Works_, v.
23.
[1154] Of his two imitations Boswell means _The Vanity of Human Wishes_,
of which one hundred lines were written in a day. _Ante_, i. 192,
and ii. 15.
[1155] Johnson, it should seem, did not allow that there was any
pleasure in writing poetry. 'It has been said there is pleasure in
writing, particularly in writing verses. I allow you may have pleasure
from writing after it is over, if you have written well; but you don't
go willingly to it again.' _Ante_, iv. 219. What Johnson always sought
was to sufficiently occupy the mind. So long as that was done, that
labour would, I believe, seem to him the pleasanter which required the
less thought.
[1156] Nathan Bailey published his _English Dictionary_ in 1721.
[1157]
'Woolston, the scourge of scripture, mark with awe!
And mighty Jacob, blunderbuss of law.'
_The Dunciad_, first ed., bk. iii. l. 149. Giles Jacob published a _Law
Dictionary_ in 1729.
[1158] _Ante_, p. 393.
[1159] A writer in the _Gent. Mag._ 1786, p. 388, with some reason
says:--'I heartily wish Mr. Boswell would get this Latin poem translated.'
[1160] Boswell, briefly mentioning the tour which Johnson made to Wales
in the year 1774 with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, says:--'I do not find that
he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there' (_ante_, ii. 285). A
journal had been kept however, which in 1816 was edited and published by
Mr. Duppa. Mrs. Piozzi, writing in October of that year, says that three
years earlier she had been shewn the MS. by a Mr. White, and that it was
genuine. 'The gentleman who possessed it seemed shy of letting me read
the whole, and did not, as it appeared, like being asked how it came
into his hands.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 177. According to Mr. Croker
(Croker's _Boswell_, p. 415) 'it was preserved by Johnson's servant,
Barber. How it escaped Boswell's research is not known.' A fragment of
Johnson's _Annals_, also preserved by Barber, had in like manner never
been seen by Boswell; _ante_, i. 35, note 1. The editor of these
_Annals_ says (Preface, p. v):--'Francis Barber, unwilling that all the
MSS. of his illustrious master should be utterly lost, preserved these
relicks from the flames. By purchase from Barber's widow they came into
the possession of the editor.' It seems likely that Barber was afraid to
own what he had done; though as he was the residuary legatee he was safe
from all consequences, unless the executors of the will who were to hold
the residue of the estate in trust for him had chosen to proceed against
him. Mr. Duppa in editing this Journal received assistance from Mrs.
Piozzi, 'who,' he says (Preface, p. xi), 'explained many facts which
could not otherwise have been understood.' A passage in one of her
letters dated Bath, Oct. 11, 1816, shows how unfriendly were the
relations between her and her eldest daughter, Johnson's Queeny, who had
married Admiral Lord Keith. 'I am sadly afraid,' she writes, 'of Lady
K.'s being displeased, and fancying I promoted this publication. Could I
have caught her for a quarter-of-an-hour, I should have proved my
innocence, and might have shown her Duppa's letter; but she left neither
note, card, nor message, and when my servant ran to all the inns in
chase of her, he learned that she had left the White Hart at twelve
o'clock. Vexatious! but it can't be helped. I hope the pretty little
girl my people saw with her will pay her more tender attention.' Three
days later she wrote:--'Johnson's _Diary_ is selling rapidly, though the
contents are _bien maigre_, I must confess. Mr. Duppa has politely
suppressed some sarcastic expressions about my family, the Cottons, whom
we visited at Combermere, and at Lleweney.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii.
176-9. Mr. Croker in 1835 was able to make 'a collation of the original
MS., which has supplied many corrections and some omissions in Mr.
Duppa's text.' Mr. Croker's text I have generally followed.
[1161] 'When I went with Johnson to Lichfield, and came down to
breakfast at the inn, my dress did not please him, and he made me alter
it entirely before he would stir a step with us about the town, saying
most satirical things concerning the appearance I made in a
riding-habit; and adding, "'Tis very strange that such eyes as yours
cannot discern propriety of dress; if I had a sight only half as good, I
think I should see to the centre."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 288.
[1162] For Mrs. (Miss) Porter, Mrs. (Miss) Aston, Mr. Green, Mrs. Cobb,
Mr. (Peter) Garrick, Miss Seward, and Dr. Taylor, see _ante_,
ii. 462-473.
[1163] Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the physiologist and poet, grandfather of
Charles Darwin. Mrs. Piozzi when at Florence wrote:--'I have no roses
equal to those at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect counting
eighty-four within my own reach; it grew against the house of Dr.
Darwin.' Piozzi's _Journey_, i. 278.
[1164] See _ante_, iii. 124, for mention of her father and brother.
[1165] The verse in _Martial_ is:--
'Defluat, et lento splendescat turbida limo.'
In the common editions it has the number 45, and not 44. DUPPA.
[1166] See _ante_, iii. 187.
[1167] Johnson wrote on Nov. 27, 1772, 'I was yesterday at Chatsworth.
They complimented me with playing the fountain and opening the cascade.
But I am of my friend's opinion, that when one has seen the ocean
cascades are but little things.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.69.
[1168] 'A water-work with a concealed spring, which, upon touching,
spouted out streams from every bough of a willow-tree.' _Piozzi
MS_. CROKER.
[1169] A race-horse, which attracted so much of Dr. Johnson's attention,
that he said, 'of all the Duke's possessions, I like Atlas best.' DUPPA.
[1170] For Johnson's last visit to Chatsworth, see _ante_, iv. 357, 367.
[1171] 'From the Muses, Sir Thomas More bore away the first crown,
Erasmus the second, and Micyllus has the third.' In the MS. Johnson has
introduced [Greek: aeren] by the side of [Greek: eilen], DUPPA. 'Jacques
Moltzer, en Latin Micyllus. Ce surnom lui fut donné le jour où il
remplissait avec le plus grand succès le rôle de Micyllus dans _Le
Songe_ de Lucien qui, arrange en drame, fut représenté au collège de
Francfort. Né en 1503, mort en 1558.' _Nouv. Biog. Gén._ xxxv. 922.
[1172] See _ante_, ii. 324, note I, and iii. 138.
[1173] Mr. Gilpin was an undergraduate at Oxford. DUPPA.
[1174] John Parker, of Brownsholme, in Lancashire [Browsholme, in
Yorkshire], Esq. DUPPA.
[1175] Mrs. Piozzi 'rather thought' that this was _Capability Brown_
[_ante_, iii. 400]. CROKER.
[1176] Mr. Gell, of Hopton Hall, father of Sir William Gell, well known
for his topography of Troy. DUPPA.
[1177] See _ante_, iii. 160, for a visit paid by Johnson and Boswell to
Kedleston in 1777.
[1178] See _ante_, iii. 164.
[1179] The parish of Prestbury. DUPPA.
[1180] At this time the seat of Sir Lynch Salusbury Cotton [Mrs.
Thrale's relation], now, of Lord Combermere, his grandson, from which
place he takes his title. DUPPA.
[1181] Shavington Hall, in Shropshire. DUPPA.
[1182] 'To guard. To adorn with lists, laces or ornamental borders.
Obsolete.' Johnson's _Dictionary._
[1183] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Nov. 13, 1783:--'You seem to
mention Lord Kilmurrey _(sic)_ as a stranger. We were at his house in
Cheshire [Shropshire].... Do not you remember how he rejoiced in having
_no_ park? He could not disoblige his neighbours by sending them _no_
venison.' _Piozzi Letters,_ ii. 326.
[1184] This remark has reference to family conversation. Robert was the
eldest son of Sir L.S. Cotton, and lived at Lleweney. DUPPA.
[1185] _Paradise Lost,_ book xi. v. 642. DUPPA.
[1186] See Mrs. Piozzi's _Synonymy_, i. 323, for an anecdote of this
walk.
[1187] Lleweney Hall was the residence of Robert Cotton, Esq., Mrs.
Thrale's cousin german. Here Mr. and Mrs. Thrale and Dr. Johnson staid
three weeks. DUPPA. Mrs. Piozzi wrote in 1817:--'Poor old Lleweney Hall!
pulled down after standing 1000 years in possession of the Salusburys.'
Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 206.
[1188] Johnson's name for Mrs. Thrale. _Ante,_ i. 494.
[1189] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Sept. 13, 1777:--'Boswell wants
to see Wales; but except the woods of Bachycraigh, what is there in
Wales? What that can fill the hunger of ignorance, or quench the thirst
of curiosity?' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 367. _Ante,_ iii. 134, note 1.
[1190] Pennant gives a description of this house, in a tour he made into
North Wales in 1780:--'Not far from Dymerchion, lies half buried in
woods the singular house of Bâch y Graig. It consists of a mansion of
three sides, enclosing a square court. The first consists of a vast hall
and parlour: the rest of it rises into six wonderful stories, including
the cupola; and forms from the second floor the figure of a pyramid: the
rooms are small and inconvenient. The bricks are admirable, and appear
to have been made in Holland; and the model of the house was probably
brought from Flanders, where this kind of building is not unfrequent. It
was built by Sir Richard Clough, an eminent merchant, in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth. The initials of his name are in iron on the front, with
the date 1567, and on the gateway 1569.' DUPPA.
[1191] Bishop Shipley, whom Johnson described as _'knowing and
convertible' Ante,_ iv. 246. Johnson, in his _Dictionary_, says that
_'conversable_ is sometimes written _conversible_, but improperly.'
[1192] William Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph and afterwards of Worcester.
He was one of the seven Bishops who were sent to the Tower in 1688. His
character is drawn by Burnet, _History of His Own Time_, ed. 1818, i.
210. It was he of whom Bishop Wilkins said that 'Lloyd had the most
learning in ready cash of any he ever knew.' _Ante_, ii. 256, note 3.
[1193] A curious account of Dodwell and 'the paradoxes after which he
seemed to hunt' is given in Burnet, iv. 303. He was Camden Professor of
Ancient History in the University of Oxford. 'It was about him that
William III uttered those memorable words: "He has set his heart on
being a martyr; and I have set mine on disappointing him."' Macaulay's
_England_, ed. 1874, iv. 226. See Hearne in Leland's _Itin._, 3rd ed.
v. 136.
[1194] By Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in 1579. DUPPA.
[1195] See _ante_, iii. 357, and v. 42.
[1196] Perhaps Johnson wrote _mere_.
[1197] Humphry Llwyd was a native of Denbigh, and practised there as a
physician, and also represented the town in Parliament. He died 1568,
aged 41. DUPPA.
[1198] Mrs. Thrale's father. DUPPA.
[1199] Cowper wrote a few years later in the first book of _The Task_,
in his description of the grounds at Weston Underwood:--
'Not distant far a length of colonnade
Invites us. Monument of ancient taste,
Now scorned, but worthy of a better fate.
Our fathers knew the value of a screen
From sultry suns, and in their shaded walks
And long-protracted bowers enjoyed at noon
The gloom and coolness of declining day.
We bear our shades about us: self-deprived
Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread,
And range an Indian waste without a tree.
Thanks to Benevolus [A]--he spares me yet
These chestnuts ranged in corresponding lines,
And though himself so polished still reprieves
The obsolete prolixity of shade.'
[1200] Such a passage as this shews that Johnson was not so insensible
to nature as is often asserted. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec._ p. 99) says:--'Mr.
Thrale loved prospects, and was mortified that his friend could not
enjoy the sight of those different dispositions of wood and water, hill
and valley, that travelling through England and France affords a man.
But when he wished to point them out to his companion: "Never heed such
nonsense," would he reply; "a blade of grass is always a blade of grass,
whether in one country or another. Let us, if we _do_ talk, talk about
something; men and women are my subjects of enquiry; let us see how
these differ from those we have left behind."' She adds (p. 265):--
'Walking in a wood when it rained was, I think, the only rural image he
pleased his fancy with; "for," says he, "after one has gathered the
apples in an orchard, one wishes them well baked, and removed to a
London eating-house for enjoyment."' See _ante_, pp. 132, note 1, 141,
note 2, 333, note i, and 346, note i, for Johnson's descriptions of
scenery. Passages in his letters shew that he had some enjoyment of
country life. Thus he writes:--'I hope to see standing corn in some part
of the earth this summer, but I shall hardly smell hay or suck clover
flowers.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 140. 'What I shall do next I know not;
all my schemes of rural pleasure have been some way or other
disappointed.' _Ib._ p. 372. 'I hope Mrs. ------ when she came to her
favourite place found her house dry, and her woods growing, and the
breeze whistling, and the birds singing, and her own heart dancing.'
_Ib._ p. 401. In this very trip to Wales, after describing the high bank
of a river 'shaded by gradual rows of trees,' he writes:--'The gloom,
the stream, and the silence generate thoughtfulness.' _Post,_ p. 454.
[A] Mr. Throckmorton the owner.
[1201] In the MS. in Dr. Johnson's handwriting, he has first entered in
his diary, 'The old Clerk had great appearance of joy at seeing his
Mistress, and foolishly said that he was now willing to die:' he
afterwards wrote in a separate column, on the same leaf, under the head
of _notes and omissions,_ 'He had a crown;' and then he appears to have
read over his diary at a future time, and interlined the paragraph with
the words 'only'--'given him by my Mistress,' which is written in ink of
a different colour. DUPPA. 'If Mr. Duppa,' wrote Mrs. Piozzi, 'does not
send me a copy of Johnson's _Diary,_ he is as shabby as it seems our
Doctor thought me, when I gave but a crown to the old clerk. The poor
clerk had probably never seen a crown in his possession before. Things
were very distant A.D. 1774 from what they are 1816.' Hayward's
_Piozzi,_ ii. 178. Mrs. Piozzi writes as if Johnson's censure had been
passed in 1816 and not in 1774.
[1202] Mrs. Piozzi has the following MS. note on this:--'He said I
flattered the people to whose houses we went. I was saucy, and said I
was obliged to be civil for two, meaning himself and me. He replied
nobody would thank me for compliments they did not understand. At
Gwaynynog _he_ was flattered, and was happy of course.' Hayward's
_Piozzi,_ i. 75. Sept. 21, 1778. _Mrs. Thrale._ 'I remember, Sir, when
we were travelling in Wales, how you called me to account for my
civility to the people. "Madam," you said, "let me have no more of this
idle commendation of nothing. Why is it that whatever you see, and
whoever you see, you are to be so indiscriminately lavish of praise?"
"Why I'll tell you, Sir," said I, "when I am with you, and Mr. Thrale,
and Queeny [Miss Thrale], I am obliged to be civil for four."' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary,_ i. 132. On June 11, 1775, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale
from Lichfield:--'Everybody remembers you all: you left a good
impression behind you. I hope you will do the same at------. Do not make
them speeches. Unusual compliments, to which there is no stated and
prescriptive answer, embarrass the feeble, who know not what to say, and
disgust the wise, who knowing them to be false suspect them to be
hypocritical.' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 232. She records that he once said
to her:--'You think I love flattery, and so I do, but a little too much
always disgusts me. That fellow Richardson [the novelist] on the
contrary could not be contented to sail quietly down the stream of
reputation, without longing to taste the froth from every stroke of the
oar.' Piozzi's _Anec._ p. 184. See _ante_, iii. 293, for Johnson's
rebuke of Hannah More's flattery.
[1203] Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines _calamine_ or _lapis
calaminaris_ as _a kind of fossile bituminous earth, which being mixed
with copper changes it into brass._ It is native siliceous oxide of
zinc. _The Imperial Dictionary._
[1204] See _ante,_ iii. 164.
[1205] 'No' or 'little' is here probably omitted. CROKER.
[1206] The name of this house is Bodryddan; formerly the residence of
the Stapyltons, the parents of five co-heiresses, of whom Mrs. Cotton,
afterwards Lady Salusbury Cotton, was one. DUPPA.
[1207] 'Dr. Johnson, whose ideas of anything not positively large were
ever mingled with contempt, asked of one of our sharp currents in North
Wales, "Has this _brook_ e'er a name?" and received for answer, "Why,
dear Sir, this is the _River_ Ustrad." "Let us," said he, turning to his
friend, "jump over it directly, and shew them how an Englishman should
treat a Welsh river."' Piozzi's _Synonymy,_ i. 82.
[1208] See _ante_, i. 313, note 4.
[1209] On Aug. 16 he wrote to Mr. Levett:--'I have made nothing of the
Ipecacuanha.' _Ante_, ii. 282. Mr. Croker suggests that _up_ is omitted
after 'I gave.'
[1210] See _post_, p. 453.
[1211] F.G. are the printer's signatures, by which it appears that at
this time four sheets (B, C, D, E), or 64 pages had already been
printed. The MS. was 'put to the press' on June 20. _Ante_, ii. 278.
[1212] The English version Psalm 36 begins,--'My heart sheweth me the
wickedness of the ungodly,' which has no relation to 'Dixit injustus.'
[1213] This alludes to 'A prayer by R.W., (evidently Robert Wisedom)
which Sir Henry Ellis, of the British Museum, has found among the Hymns
which follow the old version of the singing Psalms, at the end of
Barker's _Bible_ of 1639. It begins,
'Preserve us, Lord, by thy deare word,
From Turk and Pope, defend us Lord,
Which both would thrust out of his throne
Our Lord Jesus Christ, thy deare son.'