'Words all in vain pant after the distress.'
[85] I am sorry to see in the _Transactions of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh_, vol. ii, _An Essay on the Character of Hamlet_, written, I
should suppose, by a very young man, though called 'Reverend;' who
speaks with presumptuous petulance of the first literary character of
his age. Amidst a cloudy confusion of words, (which hath of late too
often passed in Scotland for _Metaphysicks_,) he thus ventures to
criticise one of the noblest lines in our language:--'Dr. Johnson has
remarked, that "time toil'd after him in vain." But I should apprehend,
that this is _entirely to mistake the character_. Time toils after
_every great man_, as well after Shakspeare. The _workings_ of an
ordinary mind _keep pace_, indeed, with time; they move no faster; _they
have their beginning, their middle, and their end_; but superiour
natures can _reduce these into a point_. They do not, indeed, _suppress_
them; but they _suspend_, or they _lock them up in the breast_.' The
learned Society, under whose sanction such gabble is ushered into the
world, would do well to offer a premium to any one who will discover its
meaning. BOSWELL.
[86] 'May 29, 1662. Took boat and to Fox-hall, where I had not been a
great while. To the old Spring Garden, and there walked long.' Pepys's
_Diary_, i. 361. The place was afterwards known as Faux-hall and
Vauxhall. See _ante_, iii. 308.
[87] 'One that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service and art nothing
but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar.' _King Lear_,
act ii. sc. 2.
[88] Yet W.G. Hamilton said:--'Burke understands everything but gaming
and music. In the House of Commons I sometimes think him only the second
man in England; out of it he is always the first.' Prior's _Burke_, p.
484. See _ante_, ii. 450. Bismarck once 'rang the bell' to old Prince
Metternich. 'I listened quietly,' he said, 'to all his stories, merely
jogging the bell every now and then till it rang again. That pleases
these talkative old men.' DR. BUSCH, quoted in Lowe's _Prince
Bismarck_, i. 130.
[89] See _ante_, i. 470, for his disapproval of 'studied behaviour.'
[90] Johnson had perhaps Dr. Warton in mind. _Ante_, ii. 41, note 1.
[91] See _ante_, i. 471, and iii. 165.
[92] 'Oblivion is a kind of annihilation.' Sir Thomas Browne's
_Christian Morals_, sect. xxi.
[93] 'Nec te quaesiveris extra.' Persius, _Sat_. i. 7. We may compare
Milton's line,
'In himself was all his state.'
_Paradise Lost_, v. 353.
[94] See _ante,_ iii. 269.
[95] 'A work of this kind must, in a minute examination, discover many
imperfections; but West's version, so far as I have considered it,
appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities.'
Johnson's _Works,_ viii. 398.
[96] See Boswell's _Hebrides,_ Aug. 25, 1773.
[97] See _ante,_ i. 82, and ii. 228.
[98] See _ante,_ i. 242.
[99] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, under Nov. 11.
[100] A literary lady has favoured me with a characteristick anecdote of
Richardson. One day at his country-house at Northend, where a large
company was assembled at dinner, a gentleman who was just returned from
Paris, willing to please Mr. Richardson, mentioned to him a very
flattering circumstance,--that he had seen his _Clarissa_ lying on the
King's brother's table. Richardson observing that part of the company
were engaged in talking to each other, affected then not to attend to
it. But by and by, when there was a general silence, and he thought that
the flattery might be fully heard, he addressed himself to the
gentleman, 'I think, Sir, you were saying something about,--' pausing in
a high flutter of expectation. The gentleman provoked at his inordinate
vanity, resolved not to indulge it, and with an exquisitely sly air of
indifference answered, 'A mere trifle Sir, not worth repeating.' The
mortification of Richardson was visible, and he did not speak ten words
more the whole day. Dr. Johnson was present, and appeared to enjoy it
much. BOSWELL.
[101]
'E'en in a bishop I can spy desert;
Seeker is decent, Rundel has a heart.'
Pope, _Epil. to Sat_. ii. 70. Horace Walpole wrote on Aug. 4,1768
(Letters, v. 115):--'We have lost our Pope. Canterbury [Archbishop
Seeker] died yesterday. He had never been a Papist, but almost
everything else. Our Churchmen will not be Catholics; that stock seems
quite fallen.'
[102] Perhaps the Earl of Corke. _Ante_, iii. 183.
[103] Garrick perhaps borrowed this saying when, in his epigram on
Goldsmith, speaking of the ideas of which his head was full, he said:--
'When his mouth opened all were in a pother,
Rushed to the door and tumbled o'er each other,
But rallying soon with all their force again,
In bright array they issued from his pen.'
Fitzgerald's _Garrick_, ii. 363. See _ante_, ii. 231.
[104] See _ante_, i. 116, and ii. 52.
[105] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, ix. 318) writes of Boswell's _Life of
Johnson:_--'Dr. Blagden says justly, that it is a new kind of libel, by
which you may abuse anybody, by saying some dead person said so and so
of somebody alive.'
[106] See _ante_, ii. III. In the _Gent. Mag._ 1770, p. 78, is a review
of _A Letter to Samuel Johnson, LL.D._, 'that is generally imputed to
Mr. Wilkes.'
[107] 'Do you conceive the full force of the word CONSTITUENT? It has
the same relation to the House of Commons as Creator to creature.' _A
Letter to Samuel Johnson, LL.D._, p. 23.
[108] His profound admiration of the GREAT FIRST CAUSE was such as to
set him above that 'Philosophy and vain deceit' [_Colossians_, ii. 8]
with which men of narrower conceptions have been infected. I have heard
him strongly maintain that 'what is right is not so from any natural
fitness, but because GOD wills it to be right;' and it is certainly so,
because he has predisposed the relations of things so as that which he
wills must be right. BOSWELL. Johnson was as much opposed as the Rev.
Mr. Thwackum to the philosopher Square, who 'measured all actions by the
unalterable rule of right and the eternal fitness of things.' _Tom
Jones_, book iii. ch. 3.
[109] In _Rasselas_ (ch. ii.) we read that the prince's look 'discovered
him to receive some solace of the miseries of life, from consciousness
of the delicacy with which he felt, and the eloquence with which he
bewailed them.' See _ante_, April 8, 1780.
[110] I hope the authority of the great Master of our language will stop
that curtailing innovation, by which we see _critic, public_, &c.,
frequently written instead of _critick, publick_, &c. BOSWELL. Boswell
had always been nice in his spelling. In the Preface to his _Corsica_,
published twenty-four years before _The Life of Johnson_, he defends his
peculiarities, and says:--'If this work should at any future period be
reprinted, I hope that care will be taken of my orthography.' Mr. Croker
says that in a memorandum in Johnson's writing he has found
'_cubic_ feet.'
[111] 'Disorders of intellect,' answered Imlac, 'happen much more often
than superficial observers will easily believe. Perhaps, if we speak
with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state.'
_Rasselas_, ch. 44.
[112] See _ante_, i. 397, for Kit Smart's madness in praying.
[113] Yet he gave lessons in Latin to Miss Burney and Miss Thrale. Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 243. In Skye he said, 'Depend upon it, no woman
is the worse for sense and knowledge.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 19.
[114] See _ante_, iii, 240.
[115] Nos. 588, 601, 626 and 635. The first number of the _Spectator_
was written by Addison, the last by Grove. See _ante_, iii. 33, for
Johnson's praise of No. 626.
[116] Sterne is of a direct contrary opinion. See his _Sentimental
Journey_, Article, 'The Mystery.' BOSWELL. Sterne had been of the same
opinion as Johnson, for he says that the beggar he saw 'confounded all
kind of reasoning upon him.' 'He passed by me,' he continues, 'without
asking anything--and yet he did not go five steps farther before he
asked charity of a little woman--I was much more likely to have given of
the two. He had scarce done with the woman, when he pulled his hat off
to another who was coming the same way.--An ancient gentleman came
slowly--and, after him, a young smart one--He let them both pass, and
asked nothing; I stood observing him half an hour, in which time he had
made a dozen turns backwards and forwards, and found that he invariably
pursued the same plan.' _Sentimental Journey_, ed. 1775, ii. 105.
[117] Very likely Dr. Warton. _Ante_, ii. 41.
[118] I differ from Mr. Croker in the explanation of this ill-turned
sentence. The _shield_ that Homer may hold up is the observation made by
Mrs. Fitzherbert. It was this observation that Johnson respected as a
very fine one. For his high opinion of that lady's understanding, see
_ante_, i. 83.
[119] In _Boswelliana_ (p. 323) are recorded two more of Langton's
Anecdotes. 'Mr. Beauclerk told Dr. Johnson that Dr. James said to him he
knew more Greek than Mr. Walmesley. "Sir," said he, "Dr. James did not
know enough of Greek to be sensible of his ignorance of the language.
Walmesley did."' See _ante_, i. 81. 'A certain young clergyman used to
come about Dr. Johnson. The Doctor said it vexed him to be in his
company, his ignorance was so hopeless. "Sir," said Mr. Langton, "his
coming about you shows he wishes to help his ignorance." "Sir," said the
Doctor, "his ignorance is so great, I am afraid to show him the
bottom of it."'
[120] Dr. Francklin. See _ante_, iii. 83, note 3. Churchill attacked him
in _The Rosciad_ (Poems, ii. 4). When, he says, it came to the choice
of a judge,
'Others for Francklin voted; but 'twas known,
He sickened at all triumphs but his own.'
[121] See _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.
[122] _Pr. and Med_. p.190. BOSWELL.
[123] _Ib_. 174. BOSWELL.
[124] 'Mr. Fowke once observed to Dr. Johnson that, in his opinion, the
Doctor's literary strength lay in writing biography, in which he
infinitely exceeded all his contemporaries. "Sir," said Johnson, "I
believe that is true. The dogs don't know how to write trifles with
dignity."'--R. Warner's _Original Letters_, p. 204.
[125] His design is thus announced in his _Advertisement_: 'The
Booksellers having determined to publish a body of English Poetry, I was
persuaded to promise them a Preface to the works of each authour; an
undertaking, as it was then presented to my mind, not very tedious or
difficult.
'My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an Advertisement,
like that [in original _those_] which we find in the French
Miscellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character; but I
have been led beyond my intention, I hope by the honest desire of giving
useful pleasure.' BOSWELL.
[126] _Institutiones_, liber i, Prooemium 3.
[127] 'He had bargained for two hundred guineas, and the booksellers
spontaneously added a third hundred; on this occasion Dr. Johnson
observed to me, "Sir, I always said the booksellers were a generous set
of men. Nor, in the present instance, have I reason to complain. The
fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but that I have written
too much." The _Lives_ were soon published in a separate edition; when,
for a very few corrections, he was presented with another hundred
guineas.' Nichols's _Lit. Anec._ viii. 416. See _ante_, iii. 111. In Mr.
Morrison's _Collection of Autographs_ &c., vol. ii, 'is Johnson's
receipt for 100_l_., from the proprietors of _The Lives of the Poets_
for revising the last edition of that work.' It is dated Feb. 19, 1783.
'Underneath, in Johnson's autograph, are these words: "It is great
impudence to put _Johnson's Poets_ on the back of books which Johnson
neither recommended nor revised. He recommended only Blackmore on the
Creation, and Watts. How then are they Johnson's? This is indecent."'
The poets whom Johnson recommended were Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and
Yalden. _Ante_, under Dec. 29, 1778.
[128] Gibbon says of the last five quartos of the six that formed his
_History_:--'My first rough manuscript, without any intermediate copy,
has been sent to the press.' _Misc. Works_, i. 255. In the _Memoir of
Goldsmith_, prefixed to his _Misc. Works_, i. 113, it is said:--'In
whole quires of his _Histories_, _Animated Nature_, &c., he had seldom
occasion to correct or alter a single word.' See _ante_, i. 203.
[129] From Waller's _Of Loving at First Sight_. Waller's _Poems,
Miscellanies_, xxxiv.
[130] He trusted greatly to his memory. If it did not retain anything
exactly, he did not think himself bound to look it up. Thus in his
criticism on Congreve (_Works_, viii. 31) he says:--'Of his plays I
cannot speak distinctly; for since I inspected them many years have
passed.' In a note on his _Life of Rowe_, Nichols says:--'This _Life_
is a very remarkable instance of the uncommon strength of Dr. Johnson's
memory. When I received from him the MS. he complacently observed that
the criticism was tolerably well done, considering that he had not read
one of Rowe's plays for thirty years.' _Ib_. vii. 417.
[131] Thus:--'In the _Life of Waller_, Mr. Nichols will find a reference
to the _Parliamentary History_ from which a long quotation is to be
inserted. If Mr. Nichols cannot easily find the book, Mr. Johnson will
send it from Streatham.'
'Clarendon is here returned.'
'By some accident, I laid _your_ note upon Duke up so safely, that I
cannot find it. Your informations have been of great use to me. I must
beg it again; with another list of our authors, for I have laid that
with the other. I have sent Stepney's Epitaph. Let me have the revises
as soon as can be. Dec. 1778.'
'I have sent Philips, with his Epitaphs, to be inserted. The fragment of
a preface is hardly worth the impression, but that we may seem to do
something. It may be added to the _Life of Philips_. The Latin page is
to be added to the _Life of Smith_. I shall be at home to revise the two
sheets of Milton. March 1, 1779.'
'Please to get me the last edition of Hughes's _Letters_; and try to get
_Dennis upon Blackmore_, and upon Calo, and any thing of the same writer
against Pope. Our materials are defective.'
'As Waller professed to have imitated Fairfax, do you think a few pages
of Fairfax would enrich our edition? Few readers have seen it, and it
may please them. But it is not necessary.'
'An account of the Lives and works of some of the most eminent English
Poets. By, &c.--"The English Poets, biographically and critically
considered, by SAM. JOHNSON."--Let Mr. Nichols take his choice, or make
another to his mind. May, 1781.'
'You somehow forgot the advertisement for the new edition. It was not
inclosed. Of Gay's _Letters_ I see not that any use can be made, for
they give no information of any thing. That he was a member of the
Philosophical Society is something; but surely he could be but a
corresponding member. However, not having his life here, I know not how
to put it in, and it is of little importance.'
See several more in _The Gent. Mag._, 1785. The Editor of that
Miscellany, in which Johnson wrote for several years, seems justly to
think that every fragment of so great a man is worthy of being
preserved. BOSWELL. In the original MS. in the British Museum, _Your_ in
the third paragraph of this note is not in italics. Johnson writes his
correspondent's name _Nichols_, _Nichol_, and _Nicol_. In the fourth
paragraph he writes, first _Philips_, and next _Phillips_. His spelling
was sometimes careless, _ante_, i. 260, note 2. In the _Gent. Mag._ for
1785, p. 10, another of these notes is published:--'In reading Rowe in
your edition, which is very impudently called mine, I observed a little
piece unnaturally and odiously obscene. I was offended, but was still
more offended when I could not find it in Rowe's genuine volumes. To
admit it had been wrong; to interpolate it is surely worse. If I had
known of such a piece in the whole collection, I should have been angry.
What can be done?' In a note, Mr. Nichols says that this piece 'has not
only appeared in the _Works_ of Rowe, but has been transplanted by Pope
into the _Miscellanies_ he published in his own name and that of
Dean Swift.'
[132] He published, in 1782, a revised edition of Baker's_ Biographia
Dramatica_. Baker was a grandson of De Foe. _Gent. Mag._ 1782, p. 77.
[133] Dryden writing of satiric poetry, says:--'Had I time I could
enlarge on the beautiful turns of words and thoughts, which are as
requisite in this as in heroic poetry itself; of which the satire is
undoubtedly a species. With these beautiful turns I confess myself to
have been unacquainted, till about twenty years ago, in a conversation
which I had with that noble wit of Scotland, Sir George Mackenzie, he
asked me why I did not imitate in my verses the turns of Mr. Waller, and
Sir John Denham. ... This hint, thus seasonably given me, first made me
sensible of my own wants, and brought me afterwards to seek for the
supply of them in other English authors. I looked over the darling of my
youth, the famous Cowley.' Dryden's _Works_, ed. 1821, xiii. III.
[134] In one of his letters to Nichols, Johnson says:--'You have now all
Cowley. I have been drawn to a great length, but Cowley or Waller never
had any critical examination before.' _Gent. Mag._ 1785, p.9.
[135] _Life of Sheffield_. BOSWELL. Johnson's _Works_, vii. 485.
[136] See, however, p.11 of this volume, where the same remark is made
and Johnson is there speaking of _prose_. MALONE.
[137]
'Purpureus, late qui splendeat unus et alter
Assuitur pannus.'
'... Shreds of purple with broad lustre shine
Sewed on your poem.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet_. 15.
[138] The original reading is enclosed in crochets, and the present one
is printed in Italicks. BOSWELL.
[139] I have noticed a few words which, to our ears, are more uncommon
than at least two of the three that Boswell mentions; as, 'Languages
divaricate,' _Works_, vii. 309; 'The mellifluence of Pope's numbers,'
_ib._ 337; 'A subject flux and transitory,' _ib._ 389; 'His prose is
pure without scrupulosity,' _ib._ 472; 'He received and accommodated the
ladies' (said of one serving behind the counter), _ib._ viii. 62; 'The
prevalence of this poem was gradual,' _ib._ p. 276; 'His style is
sometimes concatenated,' _ib._ p. 458. Boswell, on the next page,
supplies one more instance--'Images such as the superficies of nature
readily supplies.'
[140] See _ante_, iii. 249.
[141] Veracious is perhaps one of the 'four or five words' which Johnson
added, or thought that he added, to the English language. _Ante_, i.
221. He gives it in his _Dictionary_, but without any authority for it.
It is however older than his time.
[142] See Johnson's _Works_, vii. 134, 212, and viii. 386.
[143] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 452) writes of Johnson's
'_Billingsgate on Milton_.' A later letter shows that, like so many of
Johnson's critics, he had not read the _Life_. _Ib_. p. 508.
[144] _Works_, vii. 108.
[145] Thirty years earlier he had written of Milton as 'that poet whose
works may possibly be read when every other monument of British
greatness shall be obliterated.' _Ante_, i. 230. See _ante_, ii. 239.
[146] Earl Stanhope (_Life of Pitt_, ii. 65) describes this Society in
1790, 'as a Club, till then of little note, which had a yearly festival
in commemoration of the events of 1688. It had been new-modelled, and
enlarged with a view to the transactions at Paris, but still retained
its former name to imply a close connection between the principles of
1688 in England, and the principles of 1789 in France.' The Earl
Stanhope of that day presided at the anniversary meeting on Nov. 4,
1789. Nov. 4 was the day on which William III. landed.
[147] See _An Essay on the Life, Character, and writings of Dr. Samuel
Johnson_, London, 1787; which is very well written, making a proper
allowance for the democratical bigotry of its authour; whom I cannot
however but admire for his liberality in speaking thus of my
illustrious friend:--
'He possessed extraordinary powers of understanding, which were much
cultivated by study, and still more by meditation and reflection. His
memory was remarkably retentive, his imagination uncommonly vigorous,
and his judgement keen and penetrating. He had a strong sense of the
importance of religion; his piety was sincere, and sometimes ardent; and
his zeal for the interests of virtue was often manifested in his
conversation and in his writings. The same energy which was displayed in
his literary productions was exhibited also in his conversation, which
was various, striking, and instructive; and perhaps no man ever equalled
him for nervous and pointed repartees.'
'His _Dictionary_, his moral Essays, and his productions in polite
literature, will convey useful instruction, and elegant entertainment,
as long as the language in which they are written shall be
understood.' BOSWELL.
[148] Boswell paraphrases the following passage:--'The King, with lenity
of which the world has had perhaps no other example, declined to be the
judge or avenger of his own or his father's wrongs; and promised to
admit into the Act of Oblivion all, except those whom the Parliament
should except; and the Parliament doomed none to capital punishment but
the wretches who had immediately co-operated in the murder of the King.
Milton was certainly not one of them; he had only justified what they
had done.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 95.
[149]
'Though fall'n on evil days,
On evil days though fall'n and evil tongues,
In darkness, and with dangers compast round.'
_Paradise Lost_, vii. 26.
[150] Johnson's _Works_, vii. 105.
[151] 'His political notions were those of an acrimonious and surly
republican.' _Ib_. p. 116.
[152] 'What we know of Milton's character in domestick relations is,
that he was severe and arbitrary.' _Ib._ p. 116.
[153] 'His theological opinions are said to have been first,
Calvinistical; and afterwards, perhaps when he began to hate the
Presbyterians, to have tended towards Arminianism.... He appears to have
been untainted by any heretical peculiarity of opinion.' _Ib._ p. 115.
[154] Mr. Malone things it is rather a proof that he felt nothing of
those cheerful sensations which he has described: that on these topicks
it is the _poet_, and not the _man_, that writes. BOSWELL.
[155] See _ante_, i. 427, ii. 124, and iv. 20, for Johnson's
condemnation of blank verse. This condemnations was not universal. Of
Dryden, he wrote (_Works_, vii. 249):--'He made rhyming tragedies, till,
by the prevalence of manifest propriety, he seems to have grown ashamed
of making them any longer.' His own _Irene_ is in blank verse; though
Macaulay justly remarks of it:--'He had not the slightest notion of what
blank verse should be.' (Macaulay's _Writings and Speeches_, ed. 1871,
p. 380.) Of Thomson's _Seasons_, he says (_Works_, vii. 377):--'His is one
of the works in which blank verse seems properly used.' Of Young's
_Night Thoughts_:--'This is one of the few poems in which blank verse
could not be changed for rhyme but with disadvantage.' _Ib_. p. 460. Of
Milton himself, he writes:--'Whatever be the advantages of rhyme, I
cannot prevail on myself to wish that Milton had been a rhymer; for I
cannot wish his work to be other than it is; yet, like other heroes, he
is to be admired rather than imitated.' _Ib_. vii. 142. How much he felt
the power of Milton's blank verse is shewn by his _Rambler_, No. 90,
where, after stating that 'the noblest and most majestick pauses which
our versification admits are upon the fourth and sixth syllables,' he
adds:--' Some passages [in Milton] which conclude at this stop [the
sixth syllable] I could never read without some strong emotions of
delight or admiration.' 'If,' he continues, 'the poetry of Milton be
examined with regard to the pauses and flow of his verses into each
other, it will appear that he has performed all that our language would
admit.' Cowper was so indignant at Johnson's criticism of Milton's blank
verse that he wrote:--'Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his
pension jingle in his pocket.' Southey's _Cowper_, iii. 315.
[156] One of the most natural instances of the effect of blank verse
occurred to the late Earl of Hopeton. His Lordship observed one of his
shepherds poring in the fields upon Milton's _Paradise Lost_; and having
asked him what book it was, the man answered, 'An't please your
Lordship, this is a very odd sort of an authour: he would fain rhyme,
but cannot get at it.' BOSWELL. 'The variety of pauses, so much boasted
by the lovers of blank verse, changes the measures of an English poet to
the periods of a declaimer; and there are only a few skilful and happy
readers of Milton, who enable their audience to perceive where the lines
end or begin. "Blank verse," said an ingenious critick, "seems to be
verse only to the eye."' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 141. In the _Life of
Roscommon_ (_ib_. p. 171), he says:--'A poem frigidly didactick, without
rhyme, is so near to prose, that the reader only scorns it for
pretending to be verse.'
[157] Mr. Locke. Often mentioned in Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_.
[158] See vol. in. page 71. BOSWELL.
[159] It is scarcely a defence. Whatever it was, he thus ends it:-'It is
natural to hope, that a comprehensive is likewise an elevated soul, and
that whoever is wise is also honest. I am willing to believe that
Dryden, having employed his mind, active as it was, upon different
studies, and filled it, capacious as it was, with other materials, came
unprovided to the controversy, and wanted rather skill to discover the
right than virtue to maintain it. But inquiries into the heart are not
for man; we must now leave him to his judge.' Works, vii. 279.
[160] In the original _fright_. _The Hind and the Panther_, i. 79.
[161] In this quotation two passages are joined. _Works_, vii. 339, 340.
[162] 'The deep and pathetic morality of the _Vanity of Human Wishes_'
says Sir Walter Scott, 'has often extracted tears from those whose eyes
wander dry over the pages of professed sentimentality.' CROKER. It. drew
tears from Johnson himself. 'When,' says Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 50),
'he read his own satire, in which the life of a scholar is painted, he
burst into a passion of tears. The family and Mr. Scott only were
present, who, in a jocose way, clapped him on the back, and
said:--"What's all this, my dear Sir? Why you, and I, and Hercules, you
know, were all troubled with melancholy." He was a very large man, and
made out the triumvirate with Johnson and Hercules comically enough. The
Doctor was so delighted at his odd sally, that he suddenly embraced him,
and the subject was immediately changed.'
[163] In Disraeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, iv. 180, is
given 'a memorandum of Dr. Johnson's of hints for the _Life of Pope_.'
[164] _Works_, viii. 345.
[165] 'Of the last editor [Warburton] it is more difficult to speak.
Respect is due to high place, tenderness to living reputation, and
veneration to genius and learning; but he cannot be justly offended at
that liberty of which he has himself so frequently given an example, nor
very solicitous what is thought of notes which he ought never to have
considered as part of his serious employments.' _Works_, v. 140. See
_post_, June 10,1784.
[166] The liberality is certainly measured. With much praise there is
much censure. _Works_, viii. 288. See _ante_, ii. 36, and Boswell's
_Hebrides_, Aug. 23.
[167] Of Johnson's conduct towards Warburton, a very honourable notice
is taken by the editor of _Tracts by Warburton and a Warburtonian, not
admitted into the Collection of their respective Works_. After an able
and 'fond, though not undistinguishing,' consideration of Warburton's
character, he says, 'In two immortal works, Johnson has stood forth in
the foremost rank of his admirers. By the testimony of such a man,
impertinence must be abashed, and malignity itself must be softened. Of
literary merit, Johnson, as we all know, was a sagacious but a most
severe judge. Such was his discernment, that he pierced into the most
secret springs of human actions; and such was his integrity, that he
always weighed the moral characters of his fellow-creatures in the
"balance of the sanctuary." He was too courageous to propitiate a rival,
and too proud to truckle to a superiour. Warburton he knew, as I know
him, and as every man of sense and virtue would wish to be known,--I
mean, both from his own writings, and from the writings of those who
dissented from his principles, or who envied his reputation. But, as to
favours, he had never received or asked any from the Bishop of
Gloucester; and, if my memory fails me not, he had seen him only once,
when they met almost without design, conversed without much effort, and
parted without any lasting impressions of hatred or affection. Yet, with
all the ardour of sympathetic genius, Johnson has done that
spontaneously and ably, which, by some writers, had been before
attempted injudiciously, and which, by others, from whom more successful
attempts might have been expected, has not _hitherto_ been done at all.
He spoke well of Warburton, without insulting those whom Warburton
despised. He suppressed not the imperfections of this extraordinary man,
while he endeavoured to do justice to his numerous and transcendental
excellencies. He defended him when living, amidst the clamours of his
enemies; and praised him when dead, amidst the _silence of his
friends_.'
Having availed myself of this editor's eulogy on my departed friend, for
which I warmly thank him, let me not suffer the lustre of his
reputation, honestly acquired by profound learning and vigorous
eloquence, to be tarnished by a charge of illiberality. He has been
accused of invidiously dragging again into light certain writings of a
person respectable by his talents, his learning, his station and his
age, which were published a great many years ago, and have since, it is
said, been silently given up by their authour. But when it is considered
that these writings were not _sins of youth_, but deliberate works of
one well-advanced in life, overflowing at once with flattery to a great
man of great interest in the Church, and with unjust and acrimonious
abuse of two men of eminent merit; and that, though it would have been
unreasonable to expect an humiliating recantation, no apology whatever
has been made in the cool of the evening, for the oppressive fervour of
the heat of the day; no slight relenting indication has appeared in any
note, or any corner of later publications; is it not fair to understand
him as superciliously persevering? When he allows the shafts to remain
in the wounds, and will not stretch forth a lenient hand, is it wrong,
is it not generous to become an indignant avenger? BOSWELL. Boswell
wrote on Feb. 16, 1789:--'There is just come out a publication which
makes a considerable noise. The celebrated Dr. Parr, of Norwich,
has--wickedly, shall we say?--but surely wantonly--published Warburton's
_Juvenile Translations and Discourse on Prodigies_, and Bishop Kurd's
attacks on Jortin and Dr. Thomas Leland, with his _Essay on the Delicacy
of Friendship_.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 275. The 'editor,' therefore,
is Parr, and the 'Warburtonian' is Hurd. Boswell had written to Parr on
Jan. 10, 1791:--'I request to hear by return of post if I may say or
guess that Dr. Parr is the editor of these tracts.' Parr's _Works_,
viii. 12. See also _ib_. iii. 405.
[168] In Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 213, it is said, that this
meeting was 'at the Bishop of St. ----'s [Asaph's]. Boswell, by his
'careful enquiry,' no doubt meant to show that this statement was wrong.
Johnson is reported to have said:--' Dr. Warburton at first looked
surlily at me; but after we had been jostled into conversation he took
me to a window, asked me some questions, and before we parted was so
well pleased with me that he patted me.'
[169] 'Warburton's style is copious without selection, and forcible
without neatness; he took the words that presented themselves; his
diction is coarse and impure; and his sentences are unmeasured.'
Johnson's _Works_, viii. 288.
[170] Churchill, in _The Duellist (Poems_ ed. 1766, ii. 85), describes
Warburton as having
'A heart, which virtue ne'er disgraced;
A head where learning runs to waste.'
[171] _Works_, viii. 230.
[172] 'I never,' writes Mrs. Piozzi, 'heard Johnson pronounce the words,
"I beg your pardon, Sir," to any human creature but the apparently
soft and gentle Dr. Burney.' Burney had asked her whether she had
subscribed £100 to building a bridge. '"It is very comical, is it not,
Sir?" said I, turning to Dr. Johnson, "that people should tell such
unfounded stories." "It is," answered he, "neither comical nor serious,
my dear; it is only a wandering lie." This was spoken in his natural
voice, without a thought of offence, I am confident; but up bounced
Burney in a towering passion, and to my much amaze put on the hero,
surprising Dr. Johnson into a sudden request for pardon, and
protestation of not having ever intended to accuse his friend of a
falsehood.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 312.
[173] In the original, '_nor_.' _Works_, viii. 311.
[174] In the original, '_either_ wise or merry.'
[175] In the original, '_stands upon record_'.
[176] _Works_, viii. 316. Surely the words 'had not much to say' imply
that Johnson had heard the answer, but thought little of its wit.
According to Mr. Croker, the repartee is given in Ruffhead's _Life of
Pope_, and this book Johnson had seen. _Ante_, ii. 166.
[177] Let me here express my grateful remembrance of Lord Somerville's
kindness to me, at a very early period. He was the first person of high
rank that took particular notice of me in the way most flattering to a
young man, fondly ambitious of being distinguished for his literary
talents; and by the honour of his encouragement made me think well of
myself, and aspire to deserve it better. He had a happy art of
communicating his varied knowledge of the world, in short remarks and
anecdotes, with a quiet pleasant gravity, that was exceedingly engaging.
Never shall I forget the hours which I enjoyed with him at his
apartments in the Royal Palace of Holy-Rood House, and at his seat near
Edinburgh, which he himself had formed with an elegant taste. BOSWELL.
[178] _Ante_, iii. 392.
[179] Boswell, I think, misunderstands Johnson. Johnson said (_Works_,
viii. 313) that 'Pope's admiration of the Great seems to have increased
in the advance of life.' His _Iliad_ he had dedicated to Congreve, but
'to his latter works he took care to annex names dignified with titles,
but was not very happy in his choice; for, except Lord Bathurst, none of
his noble friends were such as that a good man would wish to have his
intimacy with them known to posterity; he can derive little honour from
the notice of Cobham, Burlington, or Bolingbroke.' Johnson, it seems
clear, is speaking, not of the noblemen whom Pope knew in general, but
of those to whom he dedicated any of his works. Among them Lord
Marchmont is not found, so that on him no slight is cast.
[180] Neither does Johnson actually say that Lord Marchmont had 'any
concern,' though perhaps he implies it. He writes:--'Pope left the care
of his papers to his executors; first to Lord Bolingbroke; and, if he
should not be living, to the Earl of Marchmont: undoubtedly expecting
them to be proud of the trust, and eager to extend his fame. But let no
man dream of influence beyond his life. After a decent time, Dodsley the
bookseller went to solicit preference as the publisher, and was told
that the parcel had not been yet inspected; and, whatever was the
reason, the world has been disappointed of what was "reserved for the
next age."' _Ib_. p. 306. As Bolingbroke outlived Pope by more than
seven years, it is clear, from what Johnson states, that he alone had
the care of the papers, and that he gave the answer to Dodsley.
Marchmont, however, knew the contents of the papers. _Ib_. p. 319.
[181] This neglect did not arise from any ill-will towards Lord
Marchmont, but from inattention; just as he neglected to correct his
statement concerning the family of Thomson the poet, after it had been
shewn to be erroneous (_ante_, in. 359). MALONE.
[182] _Works, vii. 420._
[183] Benjamin Victor published in 1722, a _Letter to Steele_, and in
1776, _Letters, Dramatic Pieces, and Poems_ Brit. Mus. Catalogue.
[184] Mr. _Wilks_. See _ante_, i. 167, note 1.
[185] See _post_, p. 91 and Macaulay's _Essay on Addison_ (ed. 1974, iv.
207).
[186] 'A better and more Christian man scarcely ever breathed than
Joseph Addison. If he had not that little weakness for wine--why we
could scarcely have found a fault with him, and could not have liked him
as we do.' Thackery's _English Humourists_, ed. 1858, p. 94.
[187] See _ante_, i. 30, and iii. 155.
[188] See _post_, under Dec. 2, 1784.
[189] Parnell 'drank to excess.' _Ante_, iii. 155.
[190] I should have thought that Johnson, who had felt the severe
affliction from which Parnell never recovered, would have preserved this
passage. BOSWELL.
[191] Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson in May, 1780:-'Blackmore will be
rescued from the old wits who worried him much to your disliking; so, a
little for love of his Christianity, a little for love of his physic, a
little for love of his courage--and a little for love of contradiction,
you will save him from his malevolent critics, and perhaps do him the
honour to devour him yourself.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 122. See
_ante_, ii. 107.
[192] 'This is a tribute which a painter owes to an architect who
composed like a painter; and was defrauded of the due reward of his
merit by the wits of his time, who did not understand the principles of
composition in poetry better than he did; and who knew little, or
nothing, of what he understood perfectly, the general ruling principles
of architecture and painting.' Reynolds's _Thirteenth Discourse_.
[193] Johnson had not wished to write _Lyttelton's Life_. He wrote to
Lord Westcote, Lyttelton's brother, 'My desire is to avoid offence, and
be totally out of danger. I take the liberty of proposing to your
lordship, that the historical account should be written under your
direction by any friend you may be willing to employ, and I will only
take upon myself to examine the poetry.'--Croker's _Boswell_, p.650.
[194] It was not _Molly Aston_ (_ante_ i. 83) but Miss Hill Boothby
(_ib_.) of whom Mrs. Thrale wrote. She says (_Anec_. p.160):--'Such was
the purity of her mind, Johnson said, and such the graces of her manner,
that Lord Lyttelton and he used to strive for her preference with an
emulation that occasioned hourly disgust, and ended in lasting
animosity.' There is surely much exaggeration in this account.
[195] Let not my readers smile to think of Johnson's being a candidate
for female favour; Mr. Peter Garrick assured me, that he was told by a
lady, that in her opinion Johnson was 'a very _seducing man_.'
Disadvantages of person and manner may be forgotten, where intellectual
pleasure is communicated to a susceptible mind; and that Johnson was
capable of feeling the most delicate and disinterested attachment,
appears from the following letter, which is published by Mrs. Thrale
[_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 391], with some others to the same person, of
which the excellence is not so apparent:--
'TO MISS BOOTHBY. January, 1755.