This letter gave me a very high satisfaction; I next day went and shewed
it to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was exceedingly pleased with it. He
thought that I should now communicate the negociation to Dr. Johnson,
who might afterwards complain if the attention with which he had been
honoured, should be too long concealed from him. I intended to set out
for Scotland next morning; but Sir Joshua cordially insisted that I
should stay another day, that Johnson and I might dine with him, that we
three might talk of his Italian Tour, and, as Sir Joshua expressed
himself, 'have it all out.' I hastened to Johnson, and was told by him
that he was rather better to-day. BOSWELL. 'I am very anxious about you,
Sir, and particularly that you should go to Italy for the winter, which
I believe is your own wish.' JOHNSON. 'It is, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'You have
no objection, I presume, but the money it would require.' JOHNSON. 'Why,
no, Sir.' Upon which I gave him a particular account of what had been
done, and read to him the Lord Chancellor's letter. He listened with
much attention; then warmly said, 'This is taking prodigious pains about
a man.' 'O! Sir, (said I, with most sincere affection,) your friends
would do every thing for you.' He paused, grew more and more agitated,
till tears started into his eyes, and he exclaimed with fervent emotion,
'GOD bless you all.' I was so affected that I also shed tears. After a
short silence, he renewed and extended his grateful benediction, 'GOD
bless you all, for JESUS CHRIST'S sake.' We both remained for some time
unable to speak. He rose suddenly and quitted the room, quite melted in
tenderness. He staid but a short time, till he had recovered his
firmness; soon after he returned I left him, having first engaged him to
dine at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, next day. I never was again under that
roof which I had so long reverenced.
On Wednesday, June 30, the friendly confidential dinner with Sir Joshua
Reynolds took place, no other company being present. Had I known that
this was the last time that I should enjoy in this world, the
conversation of a friend whom I so much respected, and from whom I
derived so much instruction and entertainment, I should have been deeply
affected. When I now look back to it, I am vexed that a single word
should have been forgotten.
Both Sir Joshua and I were so sanguine in our expectations, that we
expatiated with confidence on the liberal provision which we were sure
would be made for him, conjecturing whether munificence would be
displayed in one large donation, or in an ample increase of his pension.
He himself catched so much of our enthusiasm, as to allow himself to
suppose it not impossible that our hopes might in one way or other be
realised. He said that he would rather have his pension doubled than a
grant of a thousand pounds; 'For, (said he,) though probably I may not
live to receive as much as a thousand pounds, a man would have the
consciousness that he should pass the remainder of his life in
splendour, how long soever it might be.' Considering what a moderate
proportion an income of six hundred pounds a year bears to innumerable
fortunes in this country, it is worthy of remark, that a man so truly
great should think it splendour[1041].
As an instance of extraordinary liberality of friendship, he told us,
that Dr. Brocklesby had upon this occasion offered him a hundred a year
for his life[1042]. A grateful tear started into his eye, as he spoke
this in a faultering tone.
Sir Joshua and I endeavoured to flatter his imagination with agreeable
prospects of happiness in Italy. 'Nay, (said he,) I must not expect much
of that; when a man goes to Italy merely to feel how he breathes the
air, he can enjoy very little.'
Our conversation turned upon living in the country, which Johnson,
whose melancholy mind required the dissipation of quick successive
variety, had habituated himself to consider as a kind of mental
imprisonment[1043]. 'Yet, Sir, (said I,) there are many people who are
content to live in the country.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is in the
intellectual world as in the physical world; we are told by natural
philosophers that a body is at rest in the place that is fit for it;
they who are content to live in the country, are _fit_ for the country.'
Talking of various enjoyments, I argued that a refinement of taste was a
disadvantage, as they who have attained to it must be seldomer pleased
than those who have no nice discrimination, and are therefore satisfied
with every thing that comes in their way. JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir; that is a
paltry notion. Endeavour to be as perfect as you can in every respect.'
I accompanied him in Sir Joshua Reynolds's coach, to the entry of
Bolt-court. He asked me whether I would not go with him to his house; I
declined it, from an apprehension that my spirits would sink. We bade
adieu to each other affectionately in the carriage. When he had got down
upon the foot-pavement, he called out, 'Fare you well;' and without
looking back, sprung away with a kind of pathetick briskness, if I may
use that expression, which seemed to indicate a struggle to conceal
uneasiness, and impressed me with a foreboding of our long, long
separation.
I remained one day more in town, to have the chance of talking over my
negociation with the Lord Chancellor; but the multiplicity of his
Lordship's important engagements did not allow of it; so I left the
management of the business in the hands of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Soon after this time Dr. Johnson had the mortification of being informed
by Mrs. Thrale, that, 'what she supposed he never believed[1044],' was
true; namely, that she was actually going to marry Signor Piozzi, an
Italian musick-master[1045]. He endeavoured to prevent it; but in vain.
If she would publish the whole of the correspondence that passed between
Dr. Johnson and her on the subject, we should have a full view of his
real sentiments. As it is, our judgement must be biassed by that
characteristick specimen which Sir John Hawkins has given us: 'Poor
Thrale! I thought that either her virtue or her vice would have
restrained her from such a marriage. She is now become a subject for her
enemies to exult over; and for her friends, if she has any left, to
forget, or pity[1046].'
It must be admitted that Johnson derived a considerable portion of
happiness from the comforts and elegancies which he enjoyed in Mr.
Thrale's family[1047]; but Mrs. Thrale assures us he was indebted for
these to her husband alone, who certainly respected him sincerely. Her
words are,--
'_Veneration for his virtue, reverence for his talents_, delight _in his
conversation, and_ habitual endurance of a yoke my husband first put
upon me, _and of which he contentedly bore his share for sixteen or
seventeen years, made me go on so long with_ Mr. Johnson; _but the
perpetual confinement I will own to have been_ terrifying _in the first
years of our friendship, and_ irksome _in the last; nor could I pretend
to support _it without help, when my coadjutor was no more_[1048].'
Alas! how different is this from the declarations which I have heard
Mrs. Thrale make in his life-time, without a single murmur against any
peculiarities, or against any one circumstance which attended their
intimacy[1049].
As a sincere friend of the great man whose _Life_ I am writing, I think
it necessary to guard my readers against the mistaken notion of Dr.
Johnson's character, which this lady's _Anecdotes_ of him suggest; for
from the very nature and form of her book, 'it lends deception lighter
wings to fly'.[1050]
'Let it be remembered, (says an eminent critick[1051],) that she has
comprised in a small volume all that she could recollect of Dr. Johnson
in _twenty years_, during which period, doubtless, some severe things
were said by him; and they who read the book in _two hours_, naturally
enough suppose that his whole conversation was of this complexion. But
the fact is, I have been often in his company, and never _once_ heard
him say a severe thing to any one; and many others can attest the
same[1052]. When he did say a severe thing, it was generally extorted by
ignorance pretending to knowledge, or by extreme vanity or affectation.
'Two instances of inaccuracy, (adds he,) are peculiarly worthy of
notice:
'It is said, _"That natural[1053] roughness of his manner so often
mentioned, would, notwithstanding the regularity of his notions, burst
through them all from time to time; and he once bade a very celebrated
lady, who praised him with too much zeal perhaps, or perhaps too strong
an emphasis, (which always offended him,) consider what her flattery was
worth, before she choaked him with it."_
'Now let the genuine anecdote be contrasted with this. The person thus
represented as being harshly treated, though a very celebrated
lady[1054], was _then_ just come to London from an obscure situation in
the country. At Sir Joshua Reynolds's one evening, she met Dr. Johnson.
She very soon began to pay her court to him in the most fulsome strain.
"Spare me, I beseech you, dear Madam," was his reply. She still _laid it
on_. "Pray, Madam, let us have no more of this;" he rejoined. Not paying
any attention to these warnings, she continued still her eulogy. At
length, provoked by this indelicate and vain obtrusion of compliment, he
exclaimed, "Dearest lady, consider with yourself what your flattery is
worth, before you bestow it so freely[1055]."
'How different does this story appear, when accompanied with all these
circumstances which really belong to it, but which Mrs. Thrale either
did not know, or has suppressed.
'She says, in another place[1056], _"One gentleman, however, who dined
at a nobleman's house in his company, and that of_ Mr. Thrale, _to whom
I was obliged for the anecdote, was willing to enter the lists in
defence of_ King William's _character; and having opposed and
contradicted_ Johnson _two or three times, petulantly enough, the master
of the house began to feel uneasy, and expect disagreeable consequences;
to avoid which, he said, loud enough for the Doctor to hear,--'Our
friend here has no meaning now in all this, except just to relate at
club to-morrow how he teized_ Johnson _at dinner to-day; this is all to
do himself_ honour.' _No, upon my word, (replied the other,') I see no_
honour _in it, whatever you may do. Well, Sir, (returned_ Mr. Johnson,
_sternly,) if you do not_ see _the honour, I am sure I_ feel _the
disgrace_."
'This is all sophisticated. Mr. Thrale was _not_ in the company, though
he might have related the story to Mrs. Thrale. A friend, from whom I
had the story, was present; and it was _not_ at the house of a nobleman.
On the observation being made by the master of the house on a
gentleman's contradicting Johnson, that he had talked for the honour,
&c., the gentleman muttered in a low voice, "I see no honour in it;" and
Dr. Johnson said nothing: so all the rest, (though _bien trouvée_) is
mere garnish.'
I have had occasion several times, in the course of this work, to point
out the incorrectness of Mrs. Thrale, as to particulars which consisted
with my own knowledge[1057]. But indeed she has, in flippant terms
enough, expressed her disapprobation of that anxious desire of
authenticity which prompts a person who is to record conversations, to
write them down _at the moment_[1058]. Unquestionably, if they are to be
recorded at all, the sooner it is done the better. This lady herself
says[1059],--
_'To recollect, however, and to repeat the sayings of_ Dr. Johnson, _is
almost all that can be done by the writers of his Life; as his life, at
least since my acquaintance with him, consisted in little else than
talking, when he was not [absolutely] employed in some serious piece
of work.'_
She boasts of her having kept a common-place book[1060]; and we find she
noted, at one time or other, in a very lively manner, specimens of the
conversation of Dr. Johnson, and of those who talked with him; but had
she done it recently, they probably would have been less erroneous; and
we should have been relieved from those disagreeable doubts of their
authenticity, with which we must now peruse them.