publish a life of your friend Dr. Johnson?' 'No, ma'am!' 'I tell you as
I heard, I don't know for the truth of it, and I can't tell what he will
do. He is so extraordinary a man that perhaps he will devise something
extraordinary.' _Mme. D'Artlay's Diary_, ii. 400. 'Dr. Johnson's
history,' wrote Horace Walpole, on June 20, 1785, 'though he is going to
have as many lives as a cat, might be reduced to four lines; but I shall
wait to extract the quintessence till Sir John Hawkins, Madame Piozzi,
and Mr. Boswell have produced their quartos.' Horace Walpole's
_Letters_, viii. 557.
[59] The delay was in part due to Boswell's dissipation and
place-hunting, as is shewn by the following passages in his _Letters_ to
Temple:--'Feb. 24, 1788, I have been wretchedly dissipated, so that I
have not written a line for a fortnight.' p. 266. 'Nov. 28, 1789,
Malone's hospitality, and my other invitations, and particularly my
attendance at Lord Lonsdale's, have lost us many evenings.' _Ib_. p.
311. 'June 21, 1790, How unfortunate to be obliged to interrupt my work!
Never was a poor ambitious projector more mortified. I am suffering
without any prospect of reward, and only from my own folly.' _Ib_.
p. 326.
[60] 'You cannot imagine what labour, what perplexity, what vexation I
have endured in arranging a prodigious multiplicity of materials, in
supplying omissions, in searching for papers, buried in different
masses, and all this besides the exertion of composing and polishing;
many a time have I thought of giving it up.' _Letters of Boswell_,
p. 311.
[61] Boswell writing to Temple in 1775, says:--'I try to keep a journal,
and shall shew you that I have done tolerably; but it is hardly credible
what ground I go over, and what a variety of men and manners I
contemplate in a day; and all the time I myself am _pars magna_, for my
exuberant spirits will not let me listen enough.' _Ib_. p. 188. Mr.
Barclay said that 'he had seen Boswell lay down his knife and fork, and
take out his tablets, in order to register a good anecdote.' Croker's
_Boswell_, p. 837. The account given by Paoli to Miss Burney, shows that
very early in life Boswell took out his tablets:--'He came to my
country, and he fetched me some letter of recommending him; but I was of
the belief he might be an impostor, and I supposed in my minde he was an
espy; for I look away from him, and in a moment I look to him again, and
I behold his tablets. Oh! he was to the work of writing down all I say.
Indeed I was angry. But soon I discover he was no impostor and no espy;
and I only find I was myself the monster he had come to discern. Oh! he
is a very good man; I love him indeed; so cheerful, so gay, so pleasant!
but at the first, oh! I was indeed angry.' _Mme. D'Arblay's Diary_, ii.
155. Boswell not only recorded the conversations, he often stimulated
them. On one occasion 'he assumed,' he said, 'an air of ignorance to
incite Dr. Johnson to talk, for which it was often necessary to employ
some address.' See _post_, April 12, 1776. 'Tom Tyers,' said Johnson,
'described me the best. He once said to me, "Sir, you are like a ghost:
you never speak till you are spoken to."' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 20,
1773. Boswell writing of this Tour said:--'I also may be allowed to
claim some merit in leading the conversation; I do not mean leading, as
in an orchestra, by playing the first fiddle; but leading as one does in
examining a witness--starting topics, and making him pursue them.' _Ib_.
Sept. 28. One day he recorded:--'I did not exert myself to get Dr.
Johnson to talk, that I might not have the labour of writing down his
conversation.' _Ib_. Sept. 7. His industry grew much less towards the
close of Johnson's life. Under May 8, 1781, he records:--'Of his
conversation on that and other occasions during this period, I neglected
to keep any regular record.' On May 15, 1783:--'I have no minute of any
interview with Johnson [from May 1] till May 15. 'May 15, 1784:--'Of
these days and others on which I saw him I have no memorials.'
[62] It is an interesting question how far Boswell derived his love of
truth from himself, and how far from Johnson's training. He was one of
Johnson's _school_. He himself quotes Reynolds's observation, 'that all
who were of his _school_ are distinguished for a love of truth and
accuracy, which they would not have possessed in the same degree if they
had not been acquainted with Johnson' (_post_, under March 30, 1778).
Writing to Temple in 1789, he said:--'Johnson taught me to
cross-question in common life.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 280. His
quotations, nevertheless, are not unfrequently inaccurate. Yet to him
might fairly be applied the words that Gibbon used of Tillemont:--'His
inimitable accuracy almost assumes the character of genius.' Gibbon's
_Misc. Words_, i. 213.
[63] 'The revision of my _Life of Johnson_, by so acute and knowing a
critic as Mr. Malone, is of most essential consequence, especially as he
is _Johnsonianissimum_.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 310. A few weeks
earlier he had written:--'Yesterday afternoon Malone and I made ready
for the press thirty pages of Johnson's _Life_; he is much pleased with
it; but I feel a sad indifference [he had lately lost his wife], and he
says, "I have not the use of my faculties."' _Ib_. p. 308.
[64] Horace, _Odes_, i. 3. 1.
[65] He had published an answer to Hume's _Essay on Miracles_. See
_post_, March 20, 1776.
[66] Macleod asked if it was not wrong in Orrery to expose the defects
of a man [Swift] with whom he lived in intimacy, Johnson, 'Why no, Sir,
after the man is dead; for then it is done historically.' Boswell's
_Hebrides_, Sept. 22, 1773. See also _post_, Sept 17, 1777.
[67] See Mr. Malone's Preface to his edition of Shakspeare. BOSWELL.
[68] 'April 6, 1791.
'My _Life of Johnson_ is at last drawing to a close.... I really hope to
publish it on the 25th current.... I am at present in such bad spirits
that I have every fear concerning it--that I may get no profit, nay, may
lose--that the Public may be disappointed, and think that I have done it
poorly--that I may make many enemies, and even have quarrels. Yet
perhaps the very reverse of all this may happen.' _Letters of
Boswell_, p. 335.
'August 22, 1791.
'My _magnum opus_ sells wonderfully; twelve hundred are now gone, and we
hope the whole seventeen hundred may be gone before Christmas.' _Ib_.
p. 342.
Malone in his Preface to the fourth edition, dated June 20, 1804, says
that 'near four thousand copies have been dispersed.' The first edition
was in 2 vols., quarto; the second (1793) in 3 vols., octavo; the third
(1799), the fourth (1804), the fifth (1807), and the sixth (1811), were
each in 4 vols., octavo. The last four were edited by Malone, Boswell
having died while he was preparing notes for the third edition.
[69] 'Burke affirmed that Boswell's _Life_ was a greater monument to
Johnson's fame than all his writings put together.' _Life of
Mackintosh_, i. 92.
[70] It is a pamphlet of forty-two pages, under the title of _The
Principal Corrections and Additions to the First Edition of Mr.
Boswell's Life Of Johnson_. Price two shillings and sixpence.
[71] Reynolds died on Feb. 23, 1792.
[72] Sir Joshua in his will left £200 to Mr. Boswell 'to be expended, if
he thought proper, in the purchase of a picture at the sale of his
paintings, to be kept for his sake.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 636.
[73] Of the seventy-five years that Johnson lived, he and Boswell did
not spend two years and two months in the same neighbourhood. Excluding
the time they were together on their tour to the Hebrides, they were
dwelling within reach of each other a few weeks less than two years.
Moreover, when they were apart, there were great gaps in their
correspondence. Between Dec. 8, 1763, and Jan. 14, 1766, and again
between Nov. 10, 1769 and June 20, 1771, during which periods they did
not meet, Boswell did not receive a single letter from Johnson. The
following table shows the times they were in the same neighbourhood.
1763, May 16 to Aug. 6, London.
1766, a few days in February "
1768, " " March, Oxford.
1768, a few days in May, London.
1769, end of Sept. to Nov. 10, "
1772, March 21 to about May 10, "
1773, April 3 to May 10, "
" Aug. 14 to Nov. 22, Scotland.
1775, March 21 to April 18, London.
May 2 to May 23, "
1776, March 15 to May 16, London, Oxford, Birmingham,
with an interval of Lichfield,
about a fortnight, Ashbourne,
when Johnson was at and
Bath and Boswell at Bath.
London,
1777, Sept. 14 to Sept. 24, Ashbourne.
1778, March 18 to May 19, London.
1779, March 15 to May 3, "
" Oct. 4 to Oct. 18, "
1781, March 19 to June 5, London
and Southill.
1783, March 21 to May 30, London.
1784, May 5 to June 30, London
and Oxford.
[74]
'To shew what wisdom and what sense can do,
The poet sets Ulysses in our view.'
_Francis_. Horace, _Ep_. i. 2. 17.
[75] In his _Letter to the People of Scotland, p. 92, he wrote:--'Allow
me, my friends and countrymen, while I with honest zeal maintain _your_
cause--allow me to indulge a little more my _own egotism_ and _vanity_.
They are the indigenous plants of my mind; they distinguish it. I may
prune their luxuriancy; but I must not entirely clear it of them; for
then I should be no longer "as I am;" and perhaps there might be
something not so good.'
[76] See _post_, April 17, 1778, note.
[77] Lord Macartney was the first English ambassador to the Court of
Pekin. He left England in 1792 and returned in 1794.
[78] Boswell writing to Temple ten days earlier had said:--'Behold my
_hand_! the robbery is only of a few shillings; but the cut on my head
and bruises on my arms were sad things, and confined me to bed, in pain,
and fever, and helplessness, as a child, many days.... This shall be a
crisis in my life: I trust I shall henceforth be a sober regular man.
Indeed, my indulgence in wine has, of late years especially, been
excessive.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 346.
[79] On this day his brother wrote to Mr. Temple: 'I have now the
painful task of informing you that my dear brother expired this morning
at two o'clock; we have both lost a kind, affectionate friend, and I
shall never have such another.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 357. What was
probably Boswell's last letter is as follows:--
'My Dear Temple,
'I would fain write to you in my own hand, but really cannot. [These
words, which are hardly legible, and probably the last poor Boswell ever
wrote, afford the clearest evidence of his utter physical prostration.]
Alas, my friend, what a state is this! My son James is to write for me
what remains of this letter, and I am to dictate. The pain which
continued for so many weeks was very severe indeed, and when it went off
I thought myself quite well; but I soon felt a conviction that I was by
no means as I should be--so exceedingly weak, as my miserable attempt to
write to you afforded a full proof. All then that can be said is, that I
must wait with patience. But, O my friend! how strange is it that, at
this very time of my illness, you and Miss Temple should have been in
such a dangerous state. Much occasion for thankfulness is there that it
has not been worse with you. Pray write, or make somebody write
frequently. I feel myself a good deal stronger to-day, not withstanding
the scrawl. God bless you, my dear Temple! I ever am your old and
affectionate friend, here and I trust hereafter,
'JAMES BOSWELL.' _Ib_. p. 353.
[80] Malone died on May 25, 1812.
[81] I do not here include his Poetical Works; for, excepting his Latin
Translation of Pope's _Messiah_, his _London_, and his _Vanity of Human
Wishes_ imitated from _Juvenal_; his Prologue on the opening of
Drury-Lane Theatre by Mr. Garrick, and his _Irene_, a Tragedy, they are
very numerous, and in general short; and I have promised a complete
edition of them, in which I shall with the utmost care ascertain their
authenticity, and illustrate them with notes and various readings.
BOSWELL. Boswell's meaning, though not well expressed, is clear enough.
Mr. Croker needlessly suggests that he wrote 'they are _not_ very
numerous.' Boswell a second time (_post_, under Aug. 12, 1784, note)
mentions his intention to edit Johnson's poems. He died without doing
it. See also _post_, 1750, Boswell's note on Addison's style.
[82] The _Female Quixote_ was published in 1752. See _post_, 1762, note.
[83] The first four volumes of the _Lives_ were published in 1779, the
last six in 1781.
[84] See Dr. Johnson's letter to Mrs. Thrale, dated Ostick in Skie,
September 30, 1773:--'Boswell writes a regular Journal of our travels,
which I think contains as much of what I say and do, as of all other
occurrences together; "_for such a faithful chronicler_ is _Griffith_."'
BOSWELL. See _Piozzi Letters_, i. 159, where however we read '_as_
Griffith.'
[85] _Idler_, No. 84. BOSWELL.--In this paper he says: 'Those relations
are commonly of most value in which the writer tells his own story. He
that recounts the life of another ... lessens the familiarity of his
tale to increase its dignity ... and endeavours to hide the man that he
may produce a hero.'
[86] 'It very seldom happens to man that his business is his pleasure.
What is done from necessity is so often to be done when against the
present inclination, and so often fills the mind with anxiety, that an
habitual dislike steals upon us, and we shrink involuntarily from the
remembrance of our task.... From this unwillingness to perform more than
is required of that which is commonly performed with reluctance it
proceeds that few authors write their own lives.' _Idler_, No. 102. See
also _post_, May 1, 1783.
[87] Mrs. Piozzi records the following conversation with Johnson, which,
she says, took place on July 18, 1773. 'And who will be my biographer,'
said he, 'do you think?' 'Goldsmith, no doubt,' replied I; 'and he will
do it the best among us.' 'The dog would write it best to be sure,'
replied he; 'but his particular malice towards me, and general disregard
for truth, would make the book useless to all, and injurious to my
character.' 'Oh! as to that,' said I, 'we should all fasten upon him,
and force him to do you justice; but the worst is, the Doctor does not
_know_ your life; nor can I tell indeed who does, except Dr. Taylor of
Ashbourne.' 'Why Taylor,' said he, 'is better acquainted with my _heart_
than any man or woman now alive; and the history of my Oxford exploits
lies all between him and Adams; but Dr. James knows my very early days
better than he. After my coming to London to drive the world about a
little, you must all go to Jack Hawkesworth for anecdotes: I lived in
great familiarity with him (though I think there was not much affection)
from the year 1753 till the time Mr. Thrale and you took me up. I
intend, however, to disappoint the rogues, and either make you write the
life, with Taylor's intelligence; or, which is better, do it myself
after outliving you all. I am now,' added he, 'keeping a diary, in hopes
of using it for that purpose sometime.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 31. How much
of this is true cannot be known. Boswell some time before this
conversation had told Johnson that he intended to write his Life, and
Johnson had given him many particulars (see _post_, March 31, 1772, and
April 11, 1773). He read moreover in manuscript most of Boswell's _Tour
to the Hebrides_, and from it learnt of his intention. 'It is no small
satisfaction to me to reflect,' Boswell wrote, 'that Dr. Johnson, after
being apprised of my intentions, communicated to me, at subsequent
periods, many particulars of his life.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct.
14, 1773.
[88] 'It may be said the death of Dr. Johnson kept the public mind in
agitation beyond all former example. No literary character ever excited
so much attention.' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 3.
[89] The greatest part of this book was written while Sir John Hawkins
was alive; and I avow, that one object of my strictures was to make him
feel some compunction for his illiberal treatment of Dr. Johnson. Since
his decease, I have suppressed several of my remarks upon his work. But
though I would not 'war with the dead' _offensively_, I think it
necessary to be strenuous in _defence_ of my illustrious friend, which I
cannot be without strong animadversions upon a writer who has greatly
injured him. Let me add, that though I doubt I should not have been very
prompt to gratify Sir John Hawkins with any compliment in his life-time,
I do now frankly acknowledge, that, in my opinion, his volume, however
inadequate and improper as a life of Dr. Johnson, and however
discredited by unpardonable inaccuracies in other respects, contains a
collection of curious anecdotes and observations, which few men but its
author could have brought together. BOSWELL.
[90] 'The next name that was started was that of Sir John Hawkins; and
Mrs. Thrale said, "Why now, Dr. Johnson, he is another of those whom you
suffer nobody to abuse but yourself: Garrick is one too; for, if any
other person speaks against him, you brow-beat him in a minute." "Why
madam," answered he, "they don't know when to abuse him, and when to
praise him; I will allow no man to speak ill of David that he does not
deserve; and as to Sir John, why really I believe him to be an honest
man at the bottom; but to be sure he is penurious, and he is mean, and
it must be owned he has a degree of brutality, and a tendency to
savageness, that cannot easily be defended.... He said that Sir John and
he once belonged to the same club, but that as he eat no supper, after,
the first night of his admission he desired to be excused paying his
share." "And was he excused?" "O yes; for no man is angry at another for
being inferior to himself. We all scorned him, and admitted his plea.
For my part, I was such a fool as to pay my share for wine, though I
never tasted any. But Sir John was a most _unclubable man_."' Madame
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 65.
[91] 'In censuring Mr. [_sic_] J. Hawkins's book I say: "There is
throughout the whole of it a dark, uncharitable cast, which puts the
most unfavourable construction on my illustrious friend's conduct."
Malone maintains _cast_ will not do; he will have "malignancy." Is that
not too strong? How would "disposition" do?... Hawkins is no doubt very
malevolent. _Observe how he talks of me as quite unknown.' Letters of
Boswell_, p. 281. Malone wrote of Hawkins as follows: 'The bishop
[Bishop Percy of Dromore] concurred with every other person I have heard
speak of Hawkins, in saying that he was a most detestable fellow. He was
the son of a carpenter, and set out in life in the very lowest line of
the law. Dyer knew him well at one time, and the Bishop heard him give a
character of Hawkins once that painted him in the blackest colours;
though Dyer was by no means apt to deal in such portraits. Dyer said he
was a man of the most mischievous, uncharitable, and malignant
disposition. Sir Joshua Reynolds observed to me that Hawkins, though he
assumed great outward sanctity, was not only mean and grovelling in
dispostion, but absolutely dishonest. He never lived in any real
intimacy with Dr. Johnson, who never opened his heart to him, or had in
fact any accurate knowledge of his character.' Prior's _Malone_, pp.
425-7. See _post_, Feb. 1764, note.
[92] Mrs. Piozzi. See _post_, under June 30, 1784.
[93] Voltaire in his account of Bayle says: 'Des Maizeaux a écrit sa vie
en un gros volume; elle ne devait pas contenir six pages.' Voltaire's
_Works_, edition of 1819, xvii. 47.
[94] Brit. Mus. 4320, Ayscough's Catal., Sloane MSS. BOSWELL.--Horace
Walpole describes Birch as 'a worthy, good-natured soul, full of
industry and activity, and running about like a young setting-dog in
quest of anything, new or old, and with no parts, taste, or judgment.'
Walpole's _Letters_, vii. 326. See _post_, Sept. 1743.
[95] 'You have fixed the method of biography, and whoever will write a
life well must imitate you.' Horace Walpole to Mason; Walpole's
_Letters_, vi. 211.
[96] 'I am absolutely certain that my mode of biography, which gives not
only a _History_ of Johnson's _visible_ progress through the world, and
of his publications, but a _view_ of his mind in his letters and
conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived, and will be
more of a Life than any work that has ever yet appeared.' _Letters of
Boswell_, p. 265.
[97] Pope's Prologue to Addison's _Cato_, 1. 4.
[98] 'Boswell is the first of biographers. He has distanced all his
competitors so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them.
Eclipse is first, and the rest nowhere.' Macaulay's _Essays_, i. 374.
[99] See _post_, Sept. 17, 1777, and Malone's note of March 15, 1781,
and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22, 1773. Hannah More met Boswell when
he was carrying through the press his _Journal of a Tour to the
Hebrides_. 'Boswell tells me,' she writes, 'he is printing anecdotes of
Johnson, not his _Life_, but, as he has the vanity to call it, his
_pyramid_. I besought his tenderness for our virtuous and most revered
departed friend, and begged he would mitigate some of his asperities. He
said roughly: "He would not cut off his claws, nor make a tiger a cat,
to please anybody." It will, I doubt not, be a very amusing book, but, I
hope, not an indiscreet one; he has great enthusiasm and some fire.' H.
More's _Memoirs_, i. 403.
[100] Rambler, No. 60. BOSWELL.
[101] In the _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_.
[102] 'Mason's _Life of Gray_ is excellent, because it is interspersed
with letters which show us the _man_. His _Life of Whitehead_ is not a
life at all, for there is neither a letter nor a saying from first to
last.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 265.
[103] The Earl and Countess of Jersey, WRIGHT.
[104] Plutarch's _Life of Alexander_, Langhorne's Translation. BOSWELL.
[105] In the original, _revolving something_.
[106] In the original, _and so little regard the manners_.
[107] In the original, _and are rarely transmitted_.
[108] _Rambler_, No. 60. BOSWELL.
[109] Bacon's _Advancement of Learning_, Book I. BOSWELL.
[110] Johnson's godfather, Dr. Samuel Swinfen, according to the author
of _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Johnson_, 1785, p. 10, was
at the time of his birth lodging with Michael Johnson. Johnson had
uncles on the mother's side, named Samuel and Nathanael (see _Notes and
Queries_, 5th S. v. 13), after whom he and his brother may have been
named. It seems more likely that it was his godfather who gave him
his name.
[111] So early as 1709 _The Tatler_ complains of this 'indiscriminate
assumption.' 'I'll undertake that if you read the superscriptions to all
the offices in the kingdom, you will not find three letters directed to
any but Esquires.... In a word it is now _Populus Armigerorum_, a people
of Esquires, And I don't know but by the late act of naturalisation,
foreigners will assume that title as part of the immunity of being
Englishmen.' _The Tatler_, No. 19.
[112] 'I can hardly tell who was my grandfather,' said Johnson. See
_post_, May 9, 1773.
[113] Michael Johnson was born in 1656. He must have been engaged in the
book-trade as early as 1681; for in the _Life of Dryden_ his son says,
'The sale of Absalom and Achitophel was so large, that my father, an old
bookseller, told me, he had not known it equalled but by Sacheverell's
Trial.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 276. In the _Life of Sprat_ he is
described by his son as 'an old man who had been no careless observer of
the passages of those times.' Ib. 392.