has a letter written by Nathanael, in which he makes mention of his
brother "scarcely using him with common civility," and says, "I believe
I shall go to Georgia in about a fortnight!"' Nathanael died in
Lichfield in 1737; see _post_, Dec. 2, 1784, for his epitaph. Among the
MSS. in Pembroke College Library are bills for books receipted by Nath.
Johnson and by Sarah Johnson (his mother). She writes like a person of
little education.
[278] Miss Cave, the grand-niece of Mr. Edward Cave, has obligingly
shewn me the originals of this and the other letters of Dr. Johnson, to
him, which were first published in the _Gent. Mag_. [lv. 3], with notes
by Mr. John Nichols, the worthy and indefatigable editor of that
valuable miscellany, signed N.; some of which I shall occasionally
transcribe in the course of this work. BOSWELL. I was able to examine
some of these letters while they were still in the possession of one of
Cave's collateral descendants, and I have in one or two places corrected
errors of transcription.
[279] Sir John Floyer's Treatise on Cold Baths. _Gent. Mag_. 1734, p.
197. BOSWELL. This letter shews how uncommon a thing a cold bath was.
Floyer, after recommending 'a general method of bleeding and purging'
before the patient uses cold bathing, continues, 'I have commonly cured
the rickets by dipping children of a year old in the bath every morning;
and this wonderful effect has encouraged me to dip four boys at
Lichfield in the font at their baptism, and none have suffered any
inconvenience by it.' (For mention of Floyer, see _ante_, p. 42, and
_post_, March 27 and July 20, 1784.) Locke, in his _Treatise on
Education_, had recommended cold bathing for children. Johnson, in his
review of Lucas's _Essay on Waters_ (_post_, 1756), thus attacks cold
bathing:--'It is incident to physicians, I am afraid, beyond all other
men, to mistake subsequence for consequence. "The old gentleman," says
Dr. Lucas, "that uses the cold bath, enjoys in return an uninterrupted
state of health." This instance does not prove that the cold bath
produces health, but only that it will not always destroy it. He is well
with the bath, he would have been well without it.' _Literary
Magazine_, p. 229.
[280] A prize of fifty pounds for the best poem on 'Life, Death,
Judgement, Heaven, and Hell.' See _Gent. Mag_. vol. iv. p. 560. N.
BOSWELL. 'Cave sometimes offered subjects for poems, and proposed prizes
for the best performers. The first prize was fifty pounds, for which,
being but newly acquainted with wealth, and thinking the influence of
fifty pounds extremely great, he expected the first authors of the
kingdom to appear as competitors; and offered the allotment of the prize
to the universities. But when the time came, no name was seen among the
writers that had ever been seen before; the universities and several
private men rejected the province of assigning the prize.' Johnson's
_Works_, vi. 432.
[281] I suspect that Johnson wrote 'the Castle _Inn_, Birmingham.'
[282] Mrs. Piozzi gives the following account of this little composition
from Dr. Johnson's own relation to her, on her inquiring whether it was
rightly attributed to him:--'I think it is now just forty years ago,
that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle given him by a girl he
courted, and asked me to write him some verses that he might present her
in return. I promised, but forgot; and when he called for his lines at
the time agreed on--Sit still a moment, (says I) dear Mund' [see _post_,
May 7, 1773, for Johnson's 'way of contracting the names of his
friends'], 'and I'll fetch them thee--So stepped aside for five minutes,
and wrote the nonsense you now keep such a stir about.' _Anec_. p. 34.
In my first edition I was induced to doubt the authenticity of this
account, by the following circumstantial statement in a letter to me
from Miss Seward, of Lichfield:--'_I know_ those verses were addressed
to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or
three years before he had seen her mother, his future wife. He wrote
them at my grandfather's, and gave them to Lucy in the presence of my
mother, to whom he showed them on the instant. She used to repeat them
to me, when I asked her for _the Verses Dr. Johnson gave her on a Sprig
of Myrtle, which he had stolen or begged from her bosom_. We all know
honest Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying
to herself a compliment not _intended_ for her.' Such was this lady's
statement, which I make no doubt she supposed to be correct; but it
shews how dangerous it is to trust too implicitly to traditional
testimony and ingenious inference; for Mr. Hector has lately assured me
that Mrs. Piozzi's account is in this instance accurate, and that he was
the person for whom Johnson wrote those verses, which have been
erroneously ascribed to Mr. Hammond.
I am obliged in so many instances to notice Mrs. Piozzi's incorrectness
of relation, that I gladly seize this opportunity of acknowledging, that
however often, she is not always inaccurate.
The author having been drawn into a controversy with Miss Anna Seward,
in consequence of the preceding statement, (which may be found in the
_Gent. Mag_. vol. liii. and liv.) received the following letter from Mr.
Edmund Hector, on the subject:
'DEAR SIR,
'I am sorry to see you are engaged in altercation with a Lady, who seems
unwilling to be convinced of her errors. Surely it would be more
ingenuous to acknowledge, than to persevere.
'Lately, in looking over some papers I meant to burn, I found the
original manuscript of the _Myrtle_, with the date on it, 1731, which I
have inclosed.
'The true history (which I could swear to) is as follows: Mr. Morgan
Graves, the elder brother of a worthy Clergyman near Bath, with whom I
was acquainted, waited upon a lady in this neighbourhood, who at parting
presented him the branch. He shewed it me, and wished much to return the
compliment in verse. I applied to Johnson, who was with me, and in about
half an hour dictated the verses which I sent to my friend.
'I most solemnly declare, at that time Johnson was an entire stranger to
the Porter family; and it was almost two years after that I introduced
him to the acquaintance of Porter, whom I bought my cloaths of.
'If you intend to convince this obstinate woman, and to exhibit to the
publick the truth of your narrative, you are at liberty to make what use
you please of this statement.
'I hope you will pardon me for taking up so much of your time. Wishing
you _multos et felices annos_, I shall subscribe myself,
'Your obliged humble servant,
'E. HECTOR.'
_Birmingham_,
Jan. 9th, 1794.
BOSWELL. For a further account of Boswell's controversy with Miss
Seward, see _post_, June 25, 1784.
[283] See _post_, beginning of 1744, April 28, 1783, and under Dec. 2,
1784.
[284] See _post_, near end of 1762, note.
[285] In the registry of St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, are the
following entries:--'Baptisms, Nov. 8, 1715, Lucy, daughter of Henry
Porter. Jan. 29, 1717 [O. S.], Jarvis Henry, son of Henry Porter.
Burials, Aug. 3, 1734, Henry Porter of Edgbaston.' There were two sons;
one, Captain Porter, who died in 1763 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 130), the
other who died in 1783 (_post_, Nov. 29, 1783).
[286] According to Malone, Reynolds said that 'he had paid attention to
Johnson's limbs; and far from being unsightly, he deemed them well
formed.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 175. Mrs. Piozzi says:--'His stature was
remarkably high, and his limbs exceedingly large; his features were
strongly marked, and his countenance particularly rugged; though the
original complexion had certainly been fair, a circumstance somewhat
unusual; his sight was near, and otherwise imperfect; yet his eyes,
though of a light-grey colour, were so wild, so piercing, and at times
so fierce, that fear was, I believe, the first emotion in the hearts of
all his beholders.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 297. See _post_, end of the
book, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, near the beginning.
[287] If Johnson wore his own hair at Oxford, it must have exposed him
to ridicule. Graves, the author of _The Spiritual Quixote_, tells us
that Shenstone had the courage to wear his own hair, though 'it often
exposed him to the ill-natured remarks of people who had not half his
sense. After I was elected at All Souls, where there was often a party
of loungers in the gateway, on my expostulating with Mr. Shenstone for
not visiting me so often as usual, he said, "he was ashamed to face his
enemies in the gate."'
[288] See _post_, 1739.
[289] Mrs. Johnson was born on Feb. 4, 1688-9. MALONE. She was married
on July 9, 1735, in St. Werburgh's Church, Derby, as is shewn by the
following copy of the marriage register: '1735, July 9, Mar'd Sam'll
Johnson of ye parish of St Mary's in Litchfield, and Eliz'th Porter of
ye parish of St Phillip in Burmingham.' _Notes and Queries_, 4th S. vi.
44. At the time of their marriage, therefore, she was forty-six, and
Johnson only two months short of twenty-six.
[290] The author of the _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr.
Johnson_, 1785, p. 25, says:--'Mrs. Porter's husband died insolvent, but
her settlement was secured. She brought her second husband about seven
or eight hundred pounds, a great part of which was expended in fitting
up a house for a boarding-school.' That she had some money can be almost
inferred from what we are told by Boswell and Hawkins. How other-wise
was Johnson able to hire and furnish a large house for his school?
Boswell says that he had but three pupils. Hawkins gives him a few more.
'His number,' he writes (p. 36) 'at no time exceeded eight, and of those
not all were boarders.' After nearly twenty months of married life, when
he went to London, 'he had,' Boswell says, 'a little money.' It was not
till a year later still that he began to write for the _Gent. Mag_. If
Mrs. Johnson had not money, how did she and her husband live from July
1735 to the spring of 1738? It could scarcely have been on the profits
made from their school. Inference, however, is no longer needful, as
there is positive evidence. Mr. Timmins in his _Dr. Johnson in
Birmingham_ (p. 4) writes:--'My friend, Mr. Joseph Hill, says, A copy of
an old deed which has recently come into my hands, shews that a hundred
pounds of Mrs. Johnson's fortune was left in the hands of a Birmingham
attorney named Thomas Perks, who died insolvent; and in 1745, a bulky
deed gave his creditors 7_s_. 4_d_. in the pound. Among the creditors
for £100 were "Samuel Johnson, gent., and Elizabeth his wife, executors
of the last will and testament of Harry Porter, late of Birmingham
aforesaid, woollen draper, deceased." Johnson and his wife were almost
the only creditors who did not sign the deed, their seals being left
void. It is doubtful, therefore, whether they ever obtained the amount
of the composition £36 13_s_. 4_d_.'
[291] Sir Walter Scott has recorded Lord Auchinleck's 'sneer of most
sovereign contempt,' while he described Johnson as 'a dominie, monan
auld dominie; he keeped a schule, and cau'd it an acaadamy.' Croker's
_Boswell_, p. 397, note.
[292] 'Edial is two miles west of Lichfield.' Harwood's _Lichfield_, p.
564.
[293] Johnson in more than one passage in his writings seems to have in
mind his own days as a schoolmaster. Thus in the _Life of Milton_ he
says:--'This is the period of his life from which all his biographers
seem inclined to shrink. They are unwilling that Milton should be
degraded to a schoolmaster; but, since it cannot be denied that he
taught boys, one finds out that he taught for nothing, and another that
his motive was only zeal for the propagation of learning and virtue; and
all tell what they do not know to be true, only to excuse an act which
no wise man will consider as in itself disgraceful. His father was
alive; his allowance was not ample; and he supplied its deficiencies by
an honest and useful employment.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 75. In the
_Life of Blackmore_ he says:--'In some part of his life, it is not known
when, his indigence compelled him to teach a school, an humiliation with
which, though it certainly lasted but a little while, his enemies did
not forget to reproach him, when he became conspicuous enough to excite
malevolence; and let it be remembered for his honour, that to have been
once a school-master is the only reproach which all the perspicacity of
malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his private life.'
Johnson's _Works_, viii. 36.
[294] In the original _To teach. Seasons, Spring_, l. 1149, Thomson is
speaking, not of masters, but of parents.
[295] In the _Life of Milton_, Johnson records his own experience.
'Every man that has ever undertaken to instruct others can tell what
slow advances he has been able to make, and how much patience it
requires to recall vagrant inattention, to stimulate sluggish
indifference, and to rectify absurd misapprehension.' Johnson's
_Works_, vii. 76.
[296]
'As masters fondly soothe their
boys to read
With cakes and sweetmeats.'
_Francis_, Hor. i. _Sat_. I. 25.
[297] As Johnson kept Garrick much in awe when present, David, when his
back was turned, repaid the restraint with ridicule of him and his
dulcinea, which should be read with great abatement. PERCY. He was not
consistent in his account, for 'he told Mrs. Thrale that she was a
_little painted puppet_ of no value at all.' 'He made out,' Mrs. Piozzi
continues, 'some comical scenes, by mimicking her in a dialogue he
pretended to have overheard. I do not know whether he meant such stuff
to be believed or no, it was so comical. The picture I found of her at
Lichfield was very pretty, and her daughter said it was like. Mr.
Johnson has told me that her hair was eminently beautiful, quite
_blonde_ like that of a baby.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 148.
[298] Mr. Croker points out that in this paper 'there are two separate
schemes, the first for a school--the second for the individual studies
of some young friend.'
[299] In the _Rambler_, No. 122, Johnson, after stating that 'it is
observed that our nation has been hitherto remarkably barren of
historical genius,' praises Knolles, who, he says, 'in his _History of
the Turks_, has displayed all the excellencies that narration
can admit.'
[300] Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey
to London. Garrick, evidently meaning to embellish a little, said one
day in my hearing, 'we rode and tied.' And the Bishop of Killaloe
informed me, that at another time, when Johnson and Garrick were dining
together in a pretty large company, Johnson humorously ascertaining the
chronology of something, expressed himself thus: 'that was the year when
I came to London with two-pence half-penny in my pocket.' Garrick
overhearing him, exclaimed, 'eh? what do you say? with two-pence
half-penny in your pocket?'--JOHNSON, 'Why yes; when I came with
two-pence half-penny in _my_ pocket, and thou, Davy, with three
half-pence in thine.' BOSWELL.
[301] See _Gent. Mag_., xxiv. 333.
[302] Mr. Colson was First Master of the Free School at Rochester. In
1739 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.
MALONE. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 49) says that 'by Gelidus the
philosopher (_Rambler_, No. 24), Johnson meant to represent Colson.'
[303] This letter is printed in the _Garrick Corres_. i. 2. There we
read _I doubt not_.
[304] One curious anecdote was communicated by himself to Mr. John
Nichols. Mr. Wilcox, the bookseller, on being informed by him that his
intention was to get his livelihood as an authour, eyed his robust frame
attentively, and with a significant look, said, 'You had better buy a
porter's knot.' He however added, 'Wilcox was one of my best friends.'
BOSWELL. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 43) states that Johnson and Garrick had
soon exhausted their small stock of money in London, and that on
Garrick's suggestion they applied for a loan to Wilcox, of whom he had a
slight knowledge. 'Representing themselves to him, as they really were,
two young men, friends and travellers from the same place, and just
arrived with a view to settle here, he was so moved with their artless
tale, that on their joint note he advanced them all that their modesty
would permit them to ask (five pounds), which was soon after punctually
repaid.' Perhaps Johnson was thinking of himself when he recorded the
advice given by Cibber to Fenton, 'When the tragedy of Mariamne was
shewn to Cibber, it was rejected by him, with the additional insolence
of advising Fenton to engage himself in some employment of honest
labour, by which he might obtain that support which he could never hope
from his poetry. The play was acted at the other theatre; and the brutal
petulance of Cibber was confuted, though perhaps not shamed, by general
applause.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 56. Adam Smith in the _Wealth of
Nations_ (Book i. ch. 2) says that 'the difference between the most
dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street-porter,
for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit,
custom, and education.' Wilcox's shop was in Little Britain. Benjamin
Franklin, in 1725, lodged next door to him. 'He had,' says Franklin
(_Memoirs_, i. 64), 'an immense collection of second-hand books.
Circulating libraries were not then in use; but we agreed that on
certain reasonable terms I might read any of his books.'
[305] Bernard Lintot (_post_, July 19, 1763) died Feb. 3, 1736. _Gent.
Mag_. vi. 110. This, no doubt, was his son.
[306] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 195) says that being in London in 1746
he dined frequently with a club of officers, where they had an excellent
dinner at ten-pence. From what he adds it is clear that the
tavern-keeper made his profit on the wine. At Edinburgh, four years
earlier, he and his fellow-students used to get 'at four-pence a-head a
very good dinner of broth and beef, and a roast and potatoes every day,
with fish three or four times a-week, and all the small beer that was
called for till the cloth was removed' (_ib_. p. 63). W. Hutton, who in
1750 opened a very small book-shop in Birmingham, for which he paid rent
at a shilling a week, says (_Life of Hutton_, p. 84): 'Five shillings a
week covered every expense; as food, rent, washing, lodging, &c.' He
knew how to live wretchedly.
[307] On April 17, 1778, Johnson said: 'Early in life I drank wine; for
many years I drank none. I then for some years drank a great deal. I
then had a severe illness, and left it off, and I have never begun it
again.' Somewhat the same account is given in Boswell's _Hebrides_,
Sept. 16, 1773. Roughly speaking, he seems to have been an abstainer
from about 1736 to at least as late as 1757, and from about 1765 to the
end of his life. In 1751 Hawkins (_Life_, p. 286) describes him as
drinking only lemonade 'in a whole night spent in festivity' at the Ivy
Lane Club. In 1757 he described himself 'as a hardened and shameless
tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only tea'
(Johnson's _Works_, vi. 21). It was, I believe, in his visit to Oxford
in 1759 that 'University College witnessed his drinking three bottles of
port without being the worse for it' (_post_, April 7, 1778). When he
was living in the Temple (between 1760-65) he had the frisk with Langton
and Beauclerk when they made a bowl of _Bishop_ (_post_, 1753). On his
birthday in 1760, he 'resolved to drink less strong liquors' (_Pr. and
Med_. p. 42). In 1762 on his visit to Devonshire he drank three bottles
of wine after supper. This was the only time Reynolds had seen him
intoxicated. (Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 161). In 1763 he affected
Boswell's nerves by keeping him up late to drink port with him (_post_,
July 14, 1763). On April 21, 1764, he records: 'From the beginning of
this year I have in some measure forborne excess of strong drink' (_Pr.
and Med_. p. 51). On Easter Sunday he records: 'Avoided wine' (_id_. p.
55). On March 1, 1765, he is described at Cambridge as 'giving Mrs.
Macaulay for his toast, and drinking her in two bumpers.' It was about
this time that he had the severe illness (_post_, under Oct. 17, 1765,
note). In Feb. 1766, Boswell found him no longer drinking wine. He
shortly returned to it again; for on Aug. 2, 1767, he records, 'I have
for some days forborne wine;' and on Aug. 17, 'By abstinence from wine
and suppers I obtained sudden and great relief' (_Pr. and Med_. pp. 73,
4). According to Hawkins, Johnson said:--'After a ten years' forbearance
of every fluid except tea and sherbet, I drank one glass of wine to the
health of Sir Joshua Reynolds on the evening of the day on which he was
knighted' (Hawkins's _Johnson's Works_ (1787), xi. 215). As Reynolds was
knighted on April 21, 1769 (Taylor's _Reynolds_, i. 321), Hawkins's
report is grossly inaccurate. In Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 16, 1773,
and _post_, March 16, 1776, we find him abstaining. In 1778 he persuaded
Boswell to be 'a water-drinker upon trial' (_post_, April 28, 1778). On
April 7, 1779, 'he was persuaded to drink one glass of claret that he
might judge of it, not from recollection.' On March 20, 1781, Boswell
found that Johnson had lately returned to wine. 'I drink it now
sometimes,' he said, 'but not socially.' He seems to have generally
abstained however. On April 20, 1781, he would not join in drinking
Lichfield ale. On March 17, 1782, he made some punch for himself, by
which in the night he thought 'both his breast and imagination
disordered' (_Pr. and Med_. p. 205). In the spring of this year Hannah
More urged him to take a little wine. 'I can't drink a _little_, child,'
he answered; 'therefore I never touch it' (H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 251).
On July 1, 1784, Beattie, who met him at dinner, says, 'he cannot be
prevailed on to drink wine' (Beattie's _Life_, p. 316). On his death-bed
he refused any 'inebriating sustenance' (_post_, Dec. 1784). It is
remarkable that writing to Dr. Taylor on Aug. 5, 1773, he said:--'Drink
a great deal, and sleep heartily;' and that on June 23, 1776, he again
wrote to him:--'I hope you presever in drinking. My opinion is that I
have drunk too little, and therefore have the gout, for it is of my own
acquisition, as neither my father had it nor my mother' (_Notes and
Queries_, 6th S. v. pp. 422, 3). On Sept. 19, 1777 (_post_), he even
'owned that in his opinion a free use of wine did not shorten life.'
Johnson disapproved of fermented liquors only in the case of those who,
like himself and Boswell, could not keep from excess.
[308] Ofellus, or rather Ofella, is the 'rusticus, abnormis sapiens,
crassaque Minerva' of Horace's _Satire_, ii. 2. 3. What he teaches is
briefly expressed in Pope's Imitation, ii. 2. 1:
'What, and how great, the virtue and the art
To live on little with a cheerful heart
(A doctrine sage, but truly none of mine);
Let's talk, my friends, but talk before we dine.'
In 1769 was published a worthless poem called _The Art of Living in
London_; in which 'instructions were given to persons who live in a
garret, and spend their evenings in an ale-house.' _Gent. Mag_. xxxix.
45. To this Boswell refers.
[309] 'Johnson this day, when we were by ourselves, observed how common
it was for people to talk from books; to retail the sentiments of
others, and not their own; in short, to converse without any originality
of thinking. He was pleased to say, "You and I do not talk from books."'
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 3, 1773.
[310] The passage to Ireland was commonly made from Chester.
[311] The honourable Henry Hervey, third son of the first Earl of
Bristol, quitted the army and took orders. He married a sister of Sir
Thomas Aston, by whom he got the Aston Estate, and assumed the name and
arms of that family. Vide Collins's _Peerage_. BOSWELL.
[312] The following brief mention of Greenwich Park in 1750 is found in
one of Miss Talbot's Letters. 'Then when I come to talk of
Greenwich--Did you ever see it? It was quite a new world to me, and a
very charming one. Only on the top of a most inaccessible hill in the
park, just as we were arrived at a view that we had long been aiming at,
a violent clap of thunder burst over our heads.'--_Carter and Talbot
Corres_, i. 345.
[313] At the Oxford Commemoration of 1733 Courayer returned thanks in
his robes to the University for the honour it had done him two years
before in presenting him with his degree. _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and
his Critics_, p. 94.
[314] This library was given by George IV to the British Museum. CROKER.
[315] Ovid, Meta. iii. 724.
[316] Act iii. sc. 8.
[317] Act i. sc. 1.
[318] Act ii. sc. 7.
[319] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 232 [Sept. 20,
1773]. BOSWELL.