your quarrel with an Abbot of the Celestine order; but had not the
particulars very ready in his memory. When you write to Mr. Marsili[1103],
let him know that I remember him with kindness.
'May you, my Baretti, be very happy at Milan[1104], or some other place
nearer to, Sir,
'Your most affectionate humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
[Page 372: The accession of George III. A.D. 1762.]
[Page 373: Johnson's pension. Ætat 53.]
The accession of George the Third to the throne of these kingdoms,
opened a new and brighter prospect to men of literary merit, who had
been honoured with no mark of royal favour in the preceding reign. His
present Majesty's education in this country, as well as his taste and
beneficence, prompted him to be the patron of science and the arts; and
early this year Johnson, having been represented to him as a very
learned and good man, without any certain provision, his Majesty was
pleased to grant him a pension of three hundred pounds a year[1105]. The
Earl of Bute, who was then Prime Minister, had the honour to announce
this instance of his Sovereign's bounty, concerning which, many and
various stories, all equally erroneous, have been propagated:
maliciously representing it as a political bribe to Johnson, to desert
his avowed principles, and become the tool of a government which he held
to be founded in usurpation. I have taken care to have it in my power to
refute them from the most authentick information. Lord Bute told me,
that Mr. Wedderburne, now Lord Loughborough, was the person who first
mentioned this subject to him[1106]. Lord Loughborough told me, that the
pension was granted to Johnson solely as the reward of his literary
merit, without any stipulation whatever, or even tacit understanding
that he should write for administration. His Lordship added, that he was
confident the political tracts which Johnson afterwards did write, as
they were entirely consonant with his own opinions, would have been
written by him though no pension had been granted to him[1107].
[Page 374: Johnson's interview with Lord Bute. A.D. 1762.]
Mr. Thomas Sheridan and Mr. Murphy, who then lived a good deal both with
him and Mr. Wedderburne, told me, that they previously talked with
Johnson upon this matter, and that it was perfectly understood by all
parties that the pension was merely honorary. Sir Joshua Reynolds told
me, that Johnson called on him after his Majesty's intention had been
notified to him, and said he wished to consult his friends as to the
propriety of his accepting this mark of the royal favour, after the
definitions which he had given in his _Dictionary_ of _pension_ and
_pensioners_[1108]. He said he would not have Sir Joshua's answer till next
day, when he would call again, and desired he might think of it. Sir
Joshua answered that he was clear to give his opinion then, that there
could be no objection to his receiving from the King a reward for
literary merit; and that certainly the definitions in his _Dictionary_
were not applicable to him. Johnson, it should seem, was satisfied, for
he did not call again till he had accepted the pension, and had waited
on Lord Bute to thank him. He then told Sir Joshua that Lord Bute said
to him expressly, 'It is not given you for anything you are to do, but
for what you have done.' His Lordship, he said, behaved in the
handsomest manner. He repeated the words twice, that he might be sure
Johnson heard them, and thus set his mind perfectly at ease. This
nobleman, who has been so virulently abused, acted with great honour in
this instance, and displayed a mind truly liberal. A minister of a more
narrow and selfish disposition would have availed himself of such an
opportunity to fix an implied obligation on a man of Johnson's powerful
talents to give him his support.
[Page 375: Murphy's account of the pension. Ætat 53.]
Mr. Murphy and the late Mr. Sheridan severally contended for the
distinction of having been the first who mentioned to Mr. Wedderburne
that Johnson ought to have a pension. When I spoke of this to Lord
Loughborough, wishing to know if he recollected the prime mover in the
business, he said, 'All his friends assisted:' and when I told him that
Mr. Sheridan strenuously asserted his claim to it, his Lordship said,
'He rang the bell.' And it is but just to add, that Mr. Sheridan told
me, that when he communicated to Dr. Johnson that a pension was to be
granted him, he replied in a fervour of gratitude, 'The English language
does not afford me terms adequate to my feelings on this occasion. I
must have recourse to the French. I am _pénétré_ with his Majesty's
goodness.' When I repeated this to Dr. Johnson, he did not contradict
it[1109].
His definitions of _pension_ and _pensioner_, partly founded on the
satirical verses of Pope[1110], which he quotes, may be generally true; and
yet every body must allow, that there may be, and have been, instances
of pensions given and received upon liberal and honourable terms. Thus,
then, it is clear, that there was nothing inconsistent or humiliating in
Johnson's accepting of a pension so unconditionally and so honourably
offered to him.
[Page 376: Johnson's letter to Lord Bute. A.D. 1762.]
But I shall not detain my readers longer by any words of my own, on a
subject on which I am happily enabled, by the favour of the Earl of
Bute, to present them with what Johnson himself wrote; his lordship
having been pleased to communicate to me a copy of the following letter
to his late father[1111], which does great honour both to the writer, and
to the noble person to whom it is addressed:
'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF BUTE.
'MY LORD,
'When the bills[1112] were yesterday delivered to me by Mr. Wedderburne,
I was informed by him of the future favours which his Majesty has, by
your Lordship's recommendation, been induced to intend for me.
'Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is
bestowed; your Lordship's kindness includes every circumstance that can
gratify delicacy, or enforce obligation. You have conferred your favours
on a man who has neither alliance nor interest, who has not merited them
by services, nor courted them by officiousness; you have spared him the
shame of solicitation, and the anxiety of suspense.
[Page 377: A visit to Devonshire. Ætat 53.]
'What has been thus elegantly given, will, I hope, not be reproachfully
enjoyed; I shall endeavour to give your Lordship the only recompense
which generosity desires,--the gratification of finding that your
benefits are not improperly bestowed. I am, my Lord,
'Your Lordship's most obliged,
'Most obedient, and most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'July 20, 1762.'
This year his friend Sir Joshua Reynolds paid a visit of some weeks to
his native country, Devonshire, in which he was accompanied by Johnson,
who was much pleased with this jaunt, and declared he had derived from
it a great accession of new ideas[1113]. He was entertained at the seats
of several noblemen and gentlemen in the West of England[1114]; but the
greatest part of the time was passed at Plymouth, where the magnificence
of the navy, the ship-building and all its circumstances, afforded him a
grand subject of contemplation. The Commissioner of the Dock-yard paid
him the compliment of ordering the yacht to convey him and his friend to
the Eddystone, to which they accordingly sailed. But the weather was so
tempestuous that they could not land[1115].
[Page 378: Johnson at Plymouth. A.D. 1762.]
Reynolds and he were at this time the guests of Dr. Mudge[1116], the
celebrated surgeon, and now physician of that place, not more
distinguished for quickness of parts and variety of knowledge, than
loved and esteemed for his amiable manners; and here Johnson formed an
acquaintance with Dr. Mudge's father, that very eminent divine, the
Reverend Zachariah Mudge[1117], Prebendary of Exeter, who was idolised
in the west, both for his excellence as a preacher and the uniform
perfect propriety of his private conduct. He preached a sermon purposely
that Johnson might hear him; and we shall see afterwards that Johnson
honoured his memory by drawing his character[1118]. While Johnson was at
Plymouth, he saw a great many of its inhabitants, and was not sparing of
his very entertaining conversation. It was here that he made that frank
and truly original confession, that 'ignorance, pure ignorance,' was the
cause of a wrong definition in his _Dictionary_ of the word _pastern_
[1119], to the no small surprise of the Lady who put the question
to him; who having the most profound reverence for his character, so as
almost to suppose him endowed with infallibility, expected to hear an
explanation (of what, to be sure, seemed strange to a common reader,)
drawn from some deep-learned source with which she was unacquainted.
[Page 379: An enemy of the Dockers. Ætat 53.]
Sir Joshua Reynolds, to whom I was obliged for my information concerning
this excursion, mentions a very characteristical anecdote of Johnson
while at Plymouth. Having observed that in consequence of the Dock-yard
a new town[1120] had arisen about two miles off as a rival to the old;
and knowing from his sagacity, and just observation of human nature, that
it is certain if a man hates at all, he will hate his next neighbour; he
concluded that this new and rising town could not but excite the envy
and jealousy of the old, in which conjecture he was very soon confirmed;
he therefore set himself resolutely on the side of the old town, the
_established_ town, in which his lot was cast, considering it as a kind
of duty to _stand by_ it. He accordingly entered warmly into its
interests, and upon every occasion talked of the _dockers_, as the
inhabitants of the new town were called, as upstarts and aliens.
Plymouth is very plentifully supplied with water by a river brought into
it from a great distance, which is so abundant that it runs to waste in
the town. The Dock, or New-town, being totally destitute of water,
petitioned Plymouth that a small portion of the conduit might be
permitted to go to them, and this was now under consideration. Johnson,
affecting to entertain the passions of the place, was violent in
opposition; and, half-laughing at himself for his pretended zeal where
he had no concern, exclaimed, 'No, no! I am against the _dockers_; I am
a Plymouth-man. Rogues! let them die of thirst. They shall not have a
drop[1121]!'
[Page 380: Johnson's third letter to Baretti. A.D. 1762.]
Lord Macartney obligingly favoured me with a copy of the following
letter, in his own hand-writing, from the original, which was found, by
the present Earl of Bute, among his father's papers.
'To THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF BUTE.
'MY LORD,
'That generosity, by which I was recommended to the favour of his
Majesty, will not be offended at a solicitation necessary to make that
favour permanent and effectual.
'The pension appointed to be paid me at Michaelmas I have not received,
and know not where or from whom I am to ask it. I beg, therefore, that
your Lordship will be pleased to supply Mr. Wedderburne with such
directions as may be necessary, which, I believe, his friendship will
make him think it no trouble to convey to me.
'To interrupt your Lordship, at a time like this, with such petty
difficulties, is improper and unseasonable; but your knowledge of the
world has long since taught you, that every man's affairs, however
little, are important to himself. Every man hopes that he shall escape
neglect; and, with reason, may every man, whose vices do not preclude
his claim, expect favour from that beneficence which has been extended
to,
'My Lord,
'Your Lordship's
'Most obliged
'And
'Most humble servant,
'Temple Lane 'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Nov. 3, 1762.'
'TO MR. JOSEPH BARETTI, AT MILAN.
'London, Dec. 21, 1762.
SIR,
[Page 381: Love and marriage. Ætat 53.]
'You are not to suppose, with all your conviction of my idleness, that I
have passed all this time without writing to my Baretti. I gave a letter
to Mr. Beauclerk, who, in my opinion, and in his own, was hastening to
Naples for the recovery of his health[1122]; but he has stopped at Paris,
and I know not when he will proceed. Langton is with him.
'I will not trouble you with speculations about peace and war. The good
or ill success of battles and embassies extends itself to a very small
part of domestick life: we all have good and evil, which we feel more
sensibly than our petty part of publick miscarriage or prosperity[1123].
I am sorry for your disappointment, with which you seem more touched than
I should expect a man of your resolution and experience to have been,
did I not know that general truths are seldom applied to particular
occasions; and that the fallacy of our self-love extends itself as wide
as our interest or affections. Every man believes that mistresses are
unfaithful, and patrons capricious; but he excepts his own mistress, and
his own patron. We have all learned that greatness is negligent and
contemptuous, and that in Courts life is often languished away in
ungratified expectation; but he that approaches greatness, or glitters
in a Court, imagines that destiny has at last exempted him from the
common lot.
'Do not let such evils overwhelm you as thousands have suffered, and
thousands have surmounted; but turn your thoughts with vigour to some
other plan of life, and keep always in your mind, that, with due
submission to Providence, a man of genius has been seldom ruined but by
himself[1124]. Your Patron's weakness or insensibility will finally do
you little hurt, if he is not assisted by your own passions. Of your love
I know not the propriety, nor can estimate the power; but in love, as in
every other passion, of which hope is the essence, we ought always to
remember the uncertainty of events. There is, indeed, nothing that so
much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with
an amiable woman; and if all would happen that a lover fancies, I know
not what other terrestrial happiness would deserve pursuit. But love and
marriage are different states. Those who are to suffer the evils
together, and to suffer often for the sake of one another, soon lose
that tenderness of look, and that benevolence of mind, which arose from
the participation of unmingled pleasure and successive amusement. A
woman, we are sure, will not be always fair; we are not sure she will
always be virtuous: and man cannot retain through life that respect and
assiduity by which he pleases for a day or for a month. I do not,
however, pretend to have discovered that life has any thing more to be
desired than a prudent and virtuous marriage; therefore know not what
counsel to give you.
[Page 382: Johnson's Life of Collins. A.D. 1763.]
'If you can quit your imagination of love and greatness, and leave your
hopes of preferment and bridal raptures to try once more the fortune of
literature and industry, the way through France is now open[1125]. We
flatter ourselves that we shall cultivate, with great diligence, the
arts of peace; and every man will be welcome among us who can teach us
any thing we do not know[1126]. For your part, you will find all your
old friends willing to receive you.
'Reynolds still continues to increase in reputation and in riches. Miss
Williams, who very much loves you, goes on in the old way. Miss Cotterel
is still with Mrs. Porter. Miss Charlotte is married to Dean Lewis, and
has three children. Mr. Levet has married a street-walker[1127]. But the
gazette of my narration must now arrive to tell you, that Bathurst went
physician to the army, and died at the Havannah[1128].
'I know not whether I have not sent you word that Huggins[1129] and
Richardson[1130] are both dead. When we see our enemies and friends
gliding away before us, let us not forget that we are subject to the
general law of mortality, and shall soon be where our doom will be fixed
for ever.
'I pray GOD to bless you, and am, Sir,
'Your most affectionate humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Write soon.'
[Page 383: A dedication to the Queen. Ætat 54.]
1763: ÆTAT. 54.--In 1763 he furnished to _The Poetical Calendar_,
published by Fawkes and Woty, a character of Collins[*], which he
afterwards ingrafted into his entire life of that admirable poet[1131],
in the collection of lives which he wrote for the body of English poetry,
formed and published by the booksellers of London. His account of the
melancholy depression with which Collins was severely afflicted, and
which brought him to his grave, is, I think, one of the most tender and
interesting passages in the whole series of his writings[1132]. He also
favoured Mr. Hoole with the Dedication of his translation of _Tasso to
the Queen_,[*] which is so happily conceived and elegantly expressed,
that I cannot but point it out to the peculiar notice of my readers[1133].
[Page 384: Boswell's youthful compositions. A.D. 1763.]
[Page 385: Johnson's quarrel with Sheridan. Ætat 54.]
This is to me a memorable year; for in it I had the happiness to obtain
the acquaintance of that extraordinary man whose memoirs I am now
writing; an acquaintance which I shall ever esteem as one of the most
fortunate circumstances in my life. Though then but two-and-twenty[1134], I
had for several years read his works with delight and instruction, and
had the highest reverence for their authour, which had grown up in my
fancy into a kind of mysterious veneration[1135], by figuring to myself a
state of solemn elevated abstraction, in which I supposed him to live in
the immense metropolis of London. Mr. Gentleman, a native of Ireland,
who passed some years in Scotland as a player, and as an instructor in
the English language, a man whose talents and worth were depressed by
misfortunes[1136], had given me a representation of the figure and manner
of DICTIONARY JOHNSON, as he was then generally called[1137]; and during
my first visit to London, which was for three months in 1760, Mr. Derrick
the poet[1138], who was Gentleman's friend and countryman, flattered me
with hopes that he would introduce me to Johnson, an honour of which I
was very ambitious. But he never found an opportunity; which made me
doubt that he had promised to do what was not in his power; till Johnson
some years afterwards told me, 'Derrick, Sir, might very well have
introduced you. I had a kindness for Derrick, and am sorry he is dead.'
In the summer of 1761 Mr. Thomas Sheridan was at Edinburgh, and
delivered lectures upon the English Language and Publick Speaking to
large and respectable audiences. I was often in his company, and heard
him frequently expatiate upon Johnson's extraordinary knowledge,
talents, and virtues, repeat his pointed sayings, describe his
particularities, and boast of his being his guest sometimes till two or
three in the morning. At his house I hoped to have many opportunities of
seeing the sage, as Mr. Sheridan obligingly assured me I should not be
disappointed.
[Page 386: Sheridan's pension. A.D. 1763.]
When I returned to London in the end of 1762, to my surprise and regret
I found an irreconcileable difference had taken place between Johnson
and Sheridan. A pension of two hundred pounds a year had been given to
Sheridan. Johnson, who, as has been already mentioned, thought
slightingly of Sheridan's art, upon hearing that he was also pensioned,
exclaimed, 'What! have they given _him_ a pension? Then it is time for
me to give up mine.' Whether this proceeded from a momentary
indignation, as if it were an affront to his exalted merit that a player
should be rewarded in the same manner with him, or was the sudden effect
of a fit of peevishness, it was unluckily said, and, indeed, cannot be
justified. Mr. Sheridan's pension was granted to him not as a player,
but as a sufferer in the cause of government, when he was manager of the
Theatre Royal in Ireland, when parties ran high in 1753[1139]. And it
must also be allowed that he was a man of literature, and had
considerably improved the arts of reading and speaking with distinctness
and propriety.
Besides, Johnson should have recollected that Mr. Sheridan taught
pronunciation to Mr. Alexander Wedderburne[1140], whose sister was
married to Sir Harry Erskine[1141], an intimate friend of Lord Bute, who
was the favourite of the King; and surely the most outrageous Whig will
not maintain, that, whatever ought to be the principle in the disposal of
_offices_, a _pension_ ought never to be granted from any bias of court
connection. Mr. Macklin[1142], indeed, shared with Mr. Sheridan the honour
of instructing Mr. Wedderburne; and though it was too late in life for a
Caledonian to acquire the genuine English cadence, yet so successful
were Mr. Wedderburne's instructors, and his own unabating endeavours,
that he got rid of the coarse part of his Scotch accent, retaining only
as much of the 'native wood-note wild[1143],' as to mark his country;
which, if any Scotchman should affect to forget, I should heartily
despise him. Notwithstanding the difficulties which are to be
encountered by those who have not had the advantage of an English
education, he by degrees formed a mode of speaking to which Englishmen
do not deny the praise of elegance. Hence his distinguished oratory,
which he exerted in his own country as an advocate in the Court of
Session, and a ruling elder of the _Kirk_, has had its fame and ample
reward, in much higher spheres. When I look back on this noble person at
Edinburgh, in situations so unworthy of his brilliant powers, and behold
LORD LOUGHBOROUGH at London, the change seems almost like one of the
metamorphoses in _Ovid_; and as his two preceptors, by refining his
utterance, gave currency to his talents, we may say in the words of that
poet, '_Nam vos mutastis_[1144],'
[Page 387: Lord Loughborough. Ætat 54.]
I have dwelt the longer upon this remarkable instance of successful
parts and assiduity; because it affords animating encouragement to other
gentlemen of North-Britain to try their fortunes in the southern part of
the Island, where they may hope to gratify their utmost ambition; and
now that we are one people by the Union, it would surely be illiberal to
maintain, that they have not an equal title with the natives of any
other part of his Majesty's dominions.
[Page 388: Sheridan's attack on Johnson. A.D. 1763.]
[Page 389: Mrs. Sheridan. Ætat 54.]
Johnson complained that a man who disliked him repeated his sarcasm to
Mr. Sheridan, without telling him what followed, which was, that after a
pause he added, 'However, I am glad that Mr. Sheridan has a pension, for
he is a very good man.' Sheridan could never forgive this hasty
contemptuous expression. It rankled in his mind; and though I informed
him of all that Johnson said, and that he would be very glad to meet him
amicably, he positively declined repeated offers which I made, and once
went off abruptly from a house where he and I were engaged to dine,
because he was told that Dr. Johnson was to be there[1145]. I have no
sympathetick feeling with such persevering resentment. It is painful
when there is a breach between those who have lived together socially
and cordially; and I wonder that there is not, in all such cases, a
mutual wish that it should be healed. I could perceive that Mr. Sheridan
was by no means satisfied with Johnson's acknowledging him to be a good
man[1146]. That could not sooth his injured vanity. I could not but smile,
at the same time that I was offended, to observe Sheridan in _The Life
of Swift_[1147], which he afterwards published, attempting, in the
writhings of his resentment, to depreciate Johnson, by characterising
him as 'A writer of gigantick fame in these days of little men;' that
very Johnson whom he once so highly admired and venerated.
[Page 390: Mr. Thomas Davies. A.D. 1763.]