the ministry' (_post_, 1771). '_The Patriot_ was called for,' he writes,
'by my political friends' (_post_, Nov. 26, 1774). 'That _Taxation no
Tyranny_ was written at the desire of those who were then in power, I
have no doubt,' writes Boswell (_post_, under March 21, 1775). 'Johnson
complained to a friend that, his pension having been given to him as a
literary character, he had been applied to by administration to write
political pamphlets' (_Ib_.). Are these statements inconsistent with
what Lord Loughborough said, and with Boswell's assertion (_Ib_.) that
'Johnson neither asked nor received from government any reward
whatsoever for his political labours?' I think not. I think that, had
Johnson unpensioned been asked by the Ministry to write these pamphlets,
he would have written them. He would have been pleased by the
compliment, and for pay would have trusted to the sale. Speaking of the
first two of these pamphlets--the third had not yet appeared--he said,
'Except what I had from the booksellers, I did not get a farthing by
them' (_post_, March 21, 1772). They had not cost him much labour. _The
False Alarm_ was written between eight o'clock of one night and twelve
o'clock of the next. It went through three editions in less than two
months (_post_, 1770). _The Patriot_ was written on a Saturday (_post_,
Nov. 26, 1774). At all events Johnson had received his pension for more
than seven years before he did any work for the ministry. In Croft's
_Life of Young_, which Johnson adopted (_Works_, viii. 422), the
following passage was perhaps intended to be a defence of Johnson as a
writer for the Ministry:--'Yet who shall say with certainty that Young
was a pensioner? In all modern periods of this country, have not the
writers on one side been regularly called hirelings, and on the other
patriots?'
[1108] See _ante_, p. 294.
[1109] Murphy's account is nearly as follows (_Life_, p. 92):--'Lord
Loughborough was well acquainted with Johnson; but having heard much of
his independent spirit, and of the downfall of Osborne the bookseller
(_ante_, p. 154), he did not know but his benevolence might be rewarded
with a folio on his head. He desired me to undertake the task. I went to
the chambers in the Inner Temple Lane, which, in fact, were the abode of
wretchedness. By slow and studied approaches the message was disclosed.
Johnson made a long pause; he asked if it was seriously intended. He
fell into a profound meditation, and his own definition of a pensioner
occurred to him. He desired to meet next day, and dine at the Mitre
Tavern. At that meeting he gave up all his scruples. On the following
day Lord Loughborough conducted him to the Earl of Bute. The
conversation that passed was in the evening related to me by Dr.
Johnson. He expressed his sense of his Majesty's bounty, and thought
himself the more highly honoured, as the favour was not bestowed on him
for having dipped his pen in faction. "No, Sir," said Lord Bute, "it is
not offered to you for having dipped your pen in faction, nor with a
design that you ever should."' The reviewer of Hawkins's _Johnson_ in
the _Monthly Review_, lxxvi. 375, who was, no doubt, Murphy, adds a
little circumstance:--'On the next day Mr. Murphy was in the Temple Lane
soon after nine; _he got Johnson up and dressed in due time_; and saw
him set off at eleven.' Malone's note on what Lord Bute said to Johnson
is as follows:--'This was said by Lord Bute, as Dr. Burney was informed
by Johnson himself, in answer to a question which he put, previously to
his acceptance of the intended bounty: "Pray, my Lord, what am I
expected to do for this pension?"'
[1110]
'In Britain's senate he a seat obtains
And one more pensioner St. Stephen gains.'
_Moral Essays_, iii. 392.
Johnson left the definition of _pension_ and _pensioner_ unchanged in
the fourth edition of the _Dictionary_, corrected by him in 1773.
[1111] He died on March 10, 1792. This paragraph and the letter are not
in the first two editions.
[1112] The Treasury, Home Office, Exchequer of Receipt and Audit Office
Records have been searched for a warrant granting a pension to Dr.
Johnson without success. In 1782, by Act of Parliament all pensions on
the Civil List Establishment were from that time to be paid at the
Exchequer. In the Exchequer Order Book, Michaelmas 1782, No. 46, p. 74,
the following memorandum occurs:--"Memdum. 3 Dec. 1782. There was issued
to the following persons (By order 6th of Nov. 1782) the sums set
against their names respectively, etc.:--Persons names: Johnson Saml,
LL.D. Pensions p. ann. £300. Due to 5 July 1782, two quarters, £150."
This pension was paid at the Exchequer from that time to the quarter
ending 10 Oct. 1784. 'It is clear that the pension was payable quarterly
[for confirmation of this, see _post_, Nov. 3, 1762, and July 16, 1765]
and at the old quarter days, July 5, Oct. 10, Jan. 5, April 5, though
payment was sometimes delayed. [Once he was paid half-yearly; see
_post_, under March 20, 1771.] The expression "bills" was a general term
at the time for notes, cheques, and warrants, and no doubt covered some
kind of Treasury warrant.' The above information I owe to the kindness
of my friend Mr. Leonard H. Courtney, M.P., late Financial Secretary to
the Treasury. The 'future favours' are the future payments. His pension
was not for life, and depended therefore entirely on the king's pleasure
(see _post_, under March 21, 1775). The following letter in the
_Grenville Papers_, ii. 68, seems to show that Johnson thought the
pension due on the _new_ quarter-day:--
'DR. JOHNSON To MR. GRENVILLE.
'July 2, 1763.
'SIR,
'Be pleased to pay to the bearer seventy-five pounds, being the
quarterly payment of a pension granted by his Majesty, and due on the
24th day of June last, to Sir,
'Your most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
[1113] They left London on Aug. 16 and returned to it on Sept. 26.
Taylor's _Reynolds_, i. 214. Northcote records of this visit:--'I
remember when Mr. Reynolds was pointed out to me at a public meeting,
where a great crowd was assembled, I got as near to him as I could from
the pressure of the people to touch the skirt of his coat, which I did
with great satisfaction to my mind.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 116. In
like manner Reynolds, when a youth, had in a great crowd touched the
hand of Pope. _Ib_, p. 19. Pope, when a boy of eleven, 'persuaded some
friends to take him to the coffee-house which Dryden frequented.'
Johnson's _Works_, viii. 236. Who touched old Northcote's hand? Has the
apostolic succession been continued?--Since writing these lines I have
read with pleasure the following passage in Mr. Ruskin's _Praeterita_,
chapter i. p. 16:--'When at three-and-a-half I was taken to have my
portrait painted by Mr. Northcote, I had not been ten minutes alone with
him before I asked him why there were holes in his carpet.' Dryden,
Pope, Reynolds, Northcote, Ruskin, so runs the chain of genius, with
only one weak link in it.
[1114] At one of these seats Dr. Amyat, Physician in London, told me he
happened to meet him. In order to amuse him till dinner should be ready,
he was taken out to walk in the garden. The master of the house,
thinking it proper to introduce something scientifick into the
conversation, addressed him thus: 'Are you a botanist, Dr. Johnson:'
'No, Sir, (answered Johnson,) I am not a botanist; and, (alluding no
doubt, to his near sightedness) should I wish to become a botanist, I
must first turn myself into a reptile.' BOSWELL.
[1115] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. 285) says:--'The roughness of the language
used on board a man of war, where he passed a week on a visit to Captain
Knight, disgusted him terribly. He asked an officer what some place was
called, and received for answer that it was where the loplolly man kept
his loplolly; a reply he considered as disrespectful, gross and
ignorant.' Mr. Croker says that Captain Knight of the _Belleisle_ lay
for a couple of months in 1762 in Plymouth Sound. Croker's _Boswell_, p.
480. It seems unlikely that Johnson passed a whole week on ship-board.
_Loplolly_, or _Loblolly_, is explained in _Roderick Random_, chap.
xxvii. Roderick, when acting as the surgeon's assistant on a man of war,
'suffered,' he says, 'from the rude insults of the sailors and petty
officers, among whom I was known by the name of _Lobolly Boy_.'
[1116] He was the father of Colonel William Mudge, distinguished by his
trigonometrical survey of England and Wales. WRIGHT.
[1117] 'I have myself heard Reynolds declare, that the elder Mr. Mudge
was, in his opinion, the wisest man he had ever met with in his life. He
has always told me that he owed his first disposition to generalise, and
to view things in the abstract, to him.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i.
112, 115.
[1118] See _post_, under March 20, 1781.
[1119] See _ante_, p. 293. BOSWELL.
[1120] The present Devonport.
[1121] A friend of mine once heard him, during this visit, exclaim with
the utmost vehemence 'I _hate_ a Docker.' BLAKEWAY. Northcote (Life of
Reynolds, i. 118) says that Reynolds took Johnson to dine at a house
where 'he devoured so large a quantity of new honey and of clouted
cream, besides drinking large potations of new cyder, that the
entertainer found himself much embarrassed between his anxious regard
for the Doctor's health and his fear of breaking through the rules of
politeness, by giving him a hint on the subject. The strength of
Johnson's constitution, however, saved him from any unpleasant
consequences.' 'Sir Joshua informed a friend that he had never seen Dr.
Johnson intoxicated by hard drinking but once, and that happened at the
time that they were together in Devonshire, when one night after supper
Johnson drank three bottles of wine, which affected his speech so much
that he was unable to articulate a hard word, which occurred in the
course of his conversation. He attempted it three times but failed; yet
at last accomplished it, and then said, "Well, Sir Joshua, I think it is
now time to go to bed."' _Ib_. ii. 161. One part of this story however
is wanting in accuracy, and therefore all may be untrue. Reynolds at
this time was not knighted. Johnson said (_post_, April 7, 1778): 'I did
not leave off wine because I could not bear it; I have drunk three
bottles of port without being the worse for it. University College has
witnessed this.' See however _post_, April 24, 1779, where he said:--'I
used to slink home when I had drunk too much;' also _ante_, p. 103, and
_post_, April 28, 1783.
[1122] George Selwyn wrote:--'Topham Beauclerk is arrived. I hear he
lost £10,000 to a thief at Venice, which thief, in the course of the
year, will be at Cashiobury.' (The reference to this quotation I
have mislaid.)
[1123] Two years later he repeated this thought in the lines that he
added to Goldsmith's _Traveller_. _Post_, under Feb. 1766.
[1124] We may compare with this what 'old Bentley' said:--'Depend upon
it, no man was ever written down but by himself.' Boswell's _Hebrides_,
Oct. 1, 1773.
[1125] The preliminaries of peace between England and France had been
signed on Nov. 3 of this year. _Ann Reg_. v. 246.
[1126] Of Baretti's _Travels through Spain, &c_., Johnson wrote to Mrs.
Thrale:--'That Baretti's book would please you all I made no doubt. I
know not whether the world has ever seen such _Travels_ before. Those
whose lot it is to ramble can seldom write, and those who know how to
write very seldom ramble.' _Piozzi_ Letters, i. 32.
[1127] See _ante_, p. 370.
[1128] See _ante_, p. 242, note 1.
[1129] Huggins had quarrelled with Johnson and Baretti (Croker's
_Boswell_, 129, note). See also _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's
_Collection_.
[1130] See _ante_, p. 370.
[1131] Cowper, writing in 1784 about Collins, says:--'Of whom I did not
know that he existed till I found him there'--in the _Lives of the
Poets_, that is to say. Southey's _Cowper_, v. II.
[1132] To this passage Johnson, nearly twenty years later, added the
following (_Works_, viii. 403):--'Such was the fate of Collins, with
whom I once delighted to converse, and whom I yet remember with
tenderness.'
[1133] 'MADAM. To approach the high and the illustrious has been in all
ages the privilege of Poets; and though translators cannot justly claim
the same honour, yet they naturally follow their authours as attendants;
and I hope that in return for having enabled TASSO to diffuse his fame
through the British dominions, I may be introduced by him to the
presence of YOUR MAJESTY.
TASSO has a peculiar claim to YOUR MAJESTY'S favour, as follower and
panegyrist of the House of _Este_, which has one common ancestor with
the House of HANOVER; and in reviewing his life it is not easy to
forbear a wish that he had lived in a happier time, when he might, among
the descendants of that illustrious family, have found a more liberal
and potent patronage.
I cannot but observe, MADAM, how unequally reward is proportioned to
merit, when I reflect that the happiness which was withheld from TASSO
is reserved for me; and that the poem which once hardly procured to its
authour the countenance of the Princess of Ferrara, has attracted to its
translator the favourable notice of a BRITISH QUEEN.
Had this been the fate of TASSO, he would have been able to have
celebrated the condescension of YOUR MAJESTY in nobler language, but
could not have felt it with more ardent gratitude, than MADAM, Your
MAJESTY'S Most faithful and devoted servant.'--BOSWELL.
[1134] Young though Boswell was, he had already tried his hand at more
than one kind of writing. In 1761 he had published anonymously an _Elegy
on the Death of an Amiable Young Lady_, with an _Epistle from Menalcas
to Lycidas_. (Edinburgh, Donaldson.) The Elegy is full of such errors as
'Thou liv'd,' 'Thou led,' but is recommended by a puffing preface and
three letters--one of which is signed J--B. About the same time he
brought out a piece that was even more impudent. It was _An Ode to
Tragedy_. By a gentleman of Scotland. (Edinburgh, Donaldson, 1761. Price
sixpence.) In the 'Dedication to James Boswell, Esq.,' he says:--'I have
no intention to pay you compliments--To entertain agreeable notions of
one's own character is a great incentive to act with propriety and
spirit. But I should be sorry to contribute in any degree to your
acquiring an excess of self-sufficiency ... I own indeed that when ...
to display my extensive erudition, I have quoted Greek, Latin and French
sentences one after another with astonishing celerity; or have got into
my _Old-hock humour_ and fallen a-raving about princes and lords,
knights and geniuses, ladies of quality and harpsichords; you, with a
peculiar comic smile, have gently reminded me of the _importance of a
man to himself_, and slily left the room with the witty Dean lying open
at--P.P. _clerk of this parish_. [Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, xxiii.
142.] I, Sir, who enjoy the pleasure of your intimate acquaintance, know
that many of your hours of retirement are devoted to thought.' The _Ode_
is serious. He describes himself as having
'A soul by nature formed to feel Grief sharper than the tyrant's steel,
And bosom big with swelling thought From ancient lore's
remembrance brought.'
In the winter of 1761-2 he had helped as a contributor and part-editor
in bringing out a _Collection of Original Poems_. (_Boswell and
Erskine's Letters_, p. 27.) His next publication, also anonymous, was
_The Club at Newmarket_, written, as the Preface says, 'in the Newmarket
Coffee Room, in which the author, being elected a member of the Jockey
Club, had the happiness of passing several sprightly good-humoured
evenings.' It is very poor stuff. In the winter of 1762-3 he joined in
writing the _Critical Strictures_, mentioned _post_, June 25, 1763. Just
about the time that he first met Johnson he and his friend the Hon.
Andrew Erskine had published in their own names a very impudent little
volume of the correspondence that had passed between them. Of this I
published an edition with notes in 1879, together with Boswell's
_Journal of a Tour to Corsica_. (Messrs. Thos. De La Rue & Co.).
[1135] Boswell, in 1768, in the preface to the third edition of his
_Corsica_ described 'the warmth of affection and the dignity of
veneration' with which he never ceased to think of Mr. Johnson.
[1136] In the _Garrick Carres_, (ii. 83) there is a confused letter from
this unfortunate man, asking Garrick for the loan of five guineas. He
had a scheme for delivering dramatic lectures at Eton and Oxford; 'but,'
he added, 'my externals have so unfavourable an appearance that I cannot
produce myself with any comfort or hope of success.' Garrick sent him
five guineas. He had been a Major in the army, an actor, and dramatic
author. 'For the last seven years of his life he struggled under
sickness and want to a degree of uncommon misery.' _Gent. Mag_. for
1784, p. 959.
[1137] As great men of antiquity such as Scipio _Africanus_ had an
epithet added to their names, in consequence of some celebrated action,
so my illustrious friend was often called _DICTIONARY JOHNSON_, from
that wonderful atchievement of genius and labour, his _Dictionary of the
English Language_; the merit of which I contemplate with more and more
admiration. BOSWELL. In like manner we have 'Hermes Harris,' 'Pliny
Melmoth,' 'Demosthenes Taylor,' 'Persian Jones,' 'Abyssinian Bruce,'
'Microscope Baker,' 'Leonidas Glover,' 'Hesiod Cooke,' and
'Corsica Boswell.'
[1138] See _ante_, p. 124. He introduced Boswell to Davies, who was 'the
immediate introducer.' _Post_, under June 18, 1783, note.
[1139] On March 2, 1754 (not 1753), the audience called for a repetition
of some lines which they applied against the government. 'Diggs, the
actor, refused by order of Sheridan, the manager, to repeat them;
Sheridan would not even appear on the stage to justify the prohibition.
In an instant the audience demolished the inside of the house, and
reduced it to a shell.' Walpole's _Reign of George II_, i. 389, and
_Gent. Mag_. xxiv. 141. Sheridan's friend, Mr. S. Whyte, says
(_Miscellanea Nova, p. 16):--'In the year 1762 Sheridan's scheme for an
_English Dictionary_ was published. That memorable year he was nominated
for a pension.' He quotes (p. 111) a letter from Mrs. Sheridan, dated
Nov. 29, 1762, in which she says:--'I suppose you must have heard that
the King has granted him a pension of 200£. a year, merely as an
encouragement to his undertaking.'
[1140] See _post_, March 28, 1776.
[1141] Horace Walpole describes Lord Bute as 'a man that had passed his
life in solitude, and was too haughty to admit to his familiarity but
half a dozen silly authors and flatterers. Sir Henry Erskine, a military
poet, Home, a tragedy-writing parson,' &c. _Mem. of the Reign of George
III_, i. 37.
[1142] See _post_, March 28, 1776.
[1143] 'Native wood-_notes_ wild.' Milton's _L'Allegro_, l. 134
[1144]
'In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas
Corpora. Di coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas)
Adspirate meis.'
'Of bodies changed to various forms I sing:--
Ye Gods from whence these miracles did spring
Inspired, &c.'--DRYDEN, Ov. _Met_. i.i.
See _post_ under March 30, 1783, for Lord Loughborough.
[1145] See _post_, May 17, 1783, and June 24, 1784. Sheridan was not of
a forgiving nature. For some years he would not speak to his famous son:
yet he went with his daughters to the theatre to see one of his pieces
performed. 'The son took up his station by one of the side scenes,
opposite to the box where they sat, and there continued, unobserved, to
look at them during the greater part of the night. On his return home he
burst into tears, and owned how deeply it had gone to his heart, "to
think that _there_ sat his father and his sisters before him, and yet
that he alone was not permitted to go near them."' Moore's
_Sheridan_, i. 167.
[1146] As Johnson himself said:--'Men hate more steadily than they love;
and if I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the
better of this by saying many things to please him.' _Post_, Sept.
15, 1777.
[1147] P. 447. BOSWELL. 'There is another writer, at present of gigantic
fame in these days of little men, who has pretended to scratch out a
life of Swift, but so miserably executed as only to reflect back on
himself that disgrace which he meant to throw upon the character of the
Dean.' _The Life of Doctor Swift_, Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, ii. 200.
There is a passage in the _Lives of the Poets_ (_Works_, viii. 43) in
which Johnson might be supposed playfully to have anticipated this
attack. He is giving an account of Blackmore's imaginary _Literary Club
of Lay Monks_, of which the hero was 'one Mr. Johnson.' 'The rest of the
_Lay Monks_,' he writes, 'seem to be but feeble mortals, in comparison
with the gigantick Johnson.' See also _post_, Oct. 16, 1769. Horace
Walpole (_Letters_, v. 458) spoke no less scornfully than Sheridan of
Johnson and his contemporaries. On April 27, 1773, after saying that he
should like to be intimate with Anstey (the author of the _New Bath
Guide_), or with the author of the _Heroic Epistle_, he continues:--'I
have no thirst to know the rest of my contemporaries, from the absurd
bombast of Dr. Johnson down to the silly Dr. Goldsmith; though the
latter changeling has had bright gleams of parts, and the former had
sense, till he changed it for words, and sold it for a pension. Don't
think me scornful. Recollect that I have seen Pope and lived with Gray.'
[1148] Johnson is thus mentioned by Mrs. Sheridan in a letter dated,
Blois, Nov. 16, 1743, according to the _Garrick Corres_, i. 17, but the
date is wrongly given, as the Sheridans went to Blois in 1764: 'I have
heard Johnson decry some of the prettiest pieces of writing we have in
English; yet Johnson is an honourable man--that is to say, he is a good
critic, and in other respects a man of enormous talents.'
[1149] My position has been very well illustrated by Mr. Belsham of
Bedford, in his _Essay on Dramatic Poetry_. 'The fashionable doctrine
(says he) both of moralists and criticks in these times is, that virtue
and happiness are constant concomitants; and it is regarded as a kind of
dramatick impiety to maintain that virtue should not be rewarded, nor
vice punished in the last scene of the last act of every tragedy. This
conduct in our modern poets is, however, in my opinion, extremely
injudicious; for, it labours in vain to inculcate a doctrine in theory,
which every one knows to be false in fact, _viz_. that virtue in real
life is always productive of happiness; and vice of misery. Thus
Congreve concludes the Tragedy of _The Mourning Bride_ with the
following foolish couplet:--
'For blessings ever wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.'
'When a man eminently virtuous, a Brutus, a Cato, or a Socrates, finally
sink under the pressure of accumulated misfortune, we are not only led
to entertain a more indignant hatred of vice than if he rose from his
distress, but we are inevitably induced to cherish the sublime idea that
a day of future retribution will arrive when he shall receive not merely
poetical, but real and substantial justice.' _Essays Philosophical,
Historical, and Literary_, London, 1791, vol. II. 8vo. p. 317.
This is well reasoned and well expressed. I wish, indeed, that the
ingenious authour had not thought it necessary to introduce any
_instance_ of 'a man eminently virtuous;' as he would then have avoided
mentioning such a ruffian as Brutus under that description. Mr. Belsham
discovers in his _Essays_ so much reading and thinking, and good
composition, that I regret his not having been fortunate enough to be
educated a member of our excellent national establishment. Had he not
been nursed in nonconformity, he probably would not have been tainted
with those heresies (as I sincerely, and on no slight investigation,
think them) both in religion and politicks, which, while I read, I am
sure, with candour, I cannot read without offence. BOSWELL. Boswell's
'position has been illustrated' with far greater force by Johnson. 'It
has been the boast of some swelling moralists, that every man's fortune
was in his own power, that prudence supplied the place of all other
divinities, and that happiness is the unfailing consequence of virtue.
But surely the quiver of Omnipotence is stored with arrows against which
the shield of human virtue, however adamantine it has been boasted, is
held up in vain; we do not always suffer by our crimes; we are not
always protected by our innocence.' _The Adventurer_, No. 120. See also
_Rasselas_, chap. 27.