(_Page_ 424.)
Boswell most likely never knew that in the year 1790 Mr. Seward, in the
name of Cadell the publisher, had asked Parr to write a _Life of
Johnson_. (Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, iv. 678.) Parr, in his amusing
vanity, was as proud of this _Life_ as if he had written it. '"It would
have been," he said, "the third most learned work that has ever yet
appeared. The most learned work ever published I consider Bentley _On
the Epistles of Phalaris_; the next Salmasius _On the Hellenistic
Language_." Alluding to Boswell's Life he continued, "Mine should have
been, not the droppings of his lips, but the history of his mind."'
Field's _Life of Parr_, i. 164.
In the epitaph that he first sent in were found the words 'Probabili
Poetae.'
'In arms,' wrote Parr, 'were all the Johnsonians: Malone, Steevens, Sir
W. Scott, Windham, and even Fox, all in arms. The epithet was cold. They
do not understand it, and I am a Scholar, not a Belles-Lettres man.'
Parr had wished to pass over all notice of Johnson's poetical character.
To this, Malone said, none of his friends of the Literary Club would
agree. He pointed out also that Parr had not noticed 'that part of
Johnson's genius, which placed him on higher ground than perhaps any
other quality that can be named--the universality of his knowledge, the
promptness of his mind in producing it on all occasions in conversation,
and the vivid eloquence with which he clothed his thoughts, however
suddenly called upon.' Parr, regardless of Johnson's rule that 'in
lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath' (_ante_, ii. 407),
replied, that if he mentioned his conversation he should have to mention
also his roughness in contradiction, &c. As for the epithet _probabili_,
he 'never reflected upon it without almost a triumphant feeling in its
felicity.' Nevertheless he would change it into 'poetae sententiarum et
verborum ponderibus admirabili.' Yet these words, 'energetic and
sonorous' though they were, 'fill one with a secret and invincible
loathing, because they tend to introduce into the epitaph a character of
magnificence.' With every fresh objection he rose in importance. He
wrote for the approbation of real scholars of generations yet unborn.
'That the epitaph was written by such or such a man will, from the
publicity of the situation, and the popularity of the subject, be long
remembered.' Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, iv. 694-712. No objection seems
to have been raised to the five pompous lines of perplexing dates and
numerals in which no room is found even for Johnson's birth and
birth-place.
'After I had written the epitaph,' wrote Parr to a friend, 'Sir Joshua
Reynolds told me there was a scroll. I was in a rage. A scroll! Why,
Ned, this is vile modern contrivance. I wanted one train of ideas. What
could I do with the scroll? Johnson held it, and Johnson must speak in
it. I thought of this, his favourite maxim, in the Life of Milton,
[Johnson's _Works_, vii. 77],
"[Greek: Otti toi en megaroisi kakon t agathon te tetuktai.]."
In Homer [_Odyssey_, iv. 392] you know--and shewing the excellence of
Moral Philosophy. There Johnson and Socrates agree. Mr. Seward, hearing
of my difficulty, and no scholar, suggested the closing line in the
_Rambler_ [_ante_, i. 226, note 1]; had I looked there I should have
anticipated the suggestion. It is the closing line in Dionysius's
_Periegesis_,
"[Greek: Anton ek makaron antaxios eiae amoibae.]."
I adopted it, and gave Seward the praise. "Oh," quoth Sir William Scott,
"_[Greek: makaron]_ is Heathenish, and the Dean and Chapter will
hesitate." "The more fools they," said I. But to prevent disputes I have
altered it.
"[Greek: En makaressi ponon antaxios ein amoibae]."
Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, iv. 713.
Though the inscription on the scroll is not strictly speaking part of
the epitaph, yet this mixture of Greek and Latin is open to the censure
Johnson passed on Pope's Epitaph on Craggs.
'It may be proper to remark,' he said, 'the absurdity of joining in the
same inscription Latin and English, or verse and prose. If either
language be preferable to the other, let that only be used; for no
reason can be given why part of the information should be given in one
tongue and part in another on a tomb more than in any other place, or on
any other occasion.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 353.
Bacon the sculptor was anxious, wrote Malone, 'that posterity should
know that he was entitled to annex R.A. to his name.' Parr was ready to
give his name, lest if it were omitted 'Bacon should slily put the
figure of a hog on Johnson's monument'; just as 'Saurus and Batrachus,
when Octavia would not give them leave to set their names on the Temples
they had built in Rome, scattered one of them [Greek: saurai] [lizards],
and the other [Greek: batrachoi] [frogs] on the bases and capitals of
the columns.' But as for the R.A., the sculptor 'very reluctantly had to
agree to its omission.' Johnstone's _Parr_, iv. 705 and 710.