best of all modern novels. By the by [R. B.] Sheridan used to declare
that _he_ had never read it.' Rogers's _Table-Talk_, p. 90. The editor
says, in a note on this passage:--'The incident in _The School for
Scandal_ of Sir Oliver's presenting himself to his relations in disguise
is manifestly taken by Sheridan from his mother's novel.'
[1151] No. 8.--The very place where I was fortunate enough to be
introduced to the illustrious subject of this work, deserves to be
particularly marked. I never pass by it without feeling reverence and
regret. BOSWELL.
[1152] Johnson said:--'Sir, Davies has learning enough to give credit to
a clergyman.' _Post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. The spiteful
Steevens thus wrote about Davies:--'His concern ought to be with the
outside of books; but Dr. Johnson, Dr. Percy, and some others have made
such a coxcomb of him, that he is now hardy enough to open volumes, turn
over their leaves, and give his opinions of their contents. Did I ever
tell you an anecdote of him? About ten years ago I wanted the Oxford
_Homer_, and called at Davies's to ask for it, as I had seen one thrown
about his shop. Will you believe me, when I assure you he told me "he
had but one, and that he kept for _his own reading_?"' _Garrick
Corres_. i. 608.
[1153] Johnson, writing to Beattie, _post_, Aug 21, 1780, says:--'Mr.
Davies has got great success as an author, generated by the corruption
of a bookseller.' His principal works are _Memoirs of Garrick_, 1780,
and _Dramatic Miscellanies_, 1784.
[1154] Churchill, in the _Rosciad_, thus celebrated his wife and mocked
his recitation:--
'With him came mighty Davies. On my life
That Davies hath a very pretty wife:--
Statesman all over!--In plots famous grown!--
He mouths a sentence, as curs mouth a bone.'
Churchill's _Poems_, i. 16.
See _post_, under April 20, 1764, and March 20, 1778. Charles Lamb in a
note to his _Essay on the Tragedies of Shakespeare_ says of Davies, that
he 'is recorded to have recited the _Paradise Lost_ better than any man
in England in his day (though I cannot help thinking there must be some
mistake in this tradition).' Lamb's _Works_, ed. 1840, p. 517.
[1155] See Johnson's letter to Davies, _post_, June 18, 1783.
[1156] Mr. Murphy, in his _Essay on the Life and Genius of Dr. Johnson_,
[p. 106], has given an account of this meeting considerably different
from mine, I am persuaded without any consciousness of errour. His
memory, at the end of near thirty years, has undoubtedly deceived him,
and he supposes himself to have been present at a scene, which he has
probably heard inaccurately described by others. In my note _taken on
the very day_, in which I am confident I marked every thing material
that passed, no mention is made of this gentleman; and I am sure, that I
should not have omitted one so well known in the literary world. It may
easily be imagined that this, my first interview with Dr. Johnson, with
all its circumstances, made a strong impression on my mind, and would be
registered with peculiar attention. BOSWELL.
[1157] See _post_, April 8, 1775.
[1158] That this was a momentary sally against Garrick there can be no
doubt; for at Johnson's desire he had, some years before, given a
benefit-night at his theatre to this very person, by which she had got
two hundred pounds. Johnson, indeed, upon all other occasions, when I
was in his company, praised the very liberal charity of Garrick. I once
mentioned to him, 'It is observed, Sir, that you attack Garrick
yourself, but will suffer nobody else to do it.' JOHNSON, (smiling)
'Why, Sir, that is true.' BOSWELL. See _post_, May 15, 1776, and
April 17, 1778.
[1159] By Henry Home, Lord Kames, 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1762. See _post_,
Oct. 16, 1769. 'Johnson laughed much at Lord Kames's opinion that war
was a good thing occasionally, as so much valour and virtue were
exhibited in it. "A fire," says Johnson, "might as well be thought a
good thing; there is the bravery and address of the firemen employed in
extinguishing it; there is much humanity exerted in saving the lives and
properties of the poor sufferers; yet after all this, who can say a fire
is a good thing?"' Johnson's _Works_, (1787) xi. 209.
[1160] No. 45 of the _North Briton_ had been published on April 23.
Wilkes was arrested under a general warrant on April 30. On May 6 he was
discharged from custody by the Court of Common Pleas, before which he
had been brought by a writ of _Habeas Corpus_. A few days later he was
served with a subpoena upon an information exhibited against him by the
Attorney-General in the Court of King's Bench. He did not enter an
appearance, holding, as he said, the serving him with the subpoena as a
violation of the privilege of parliament. _Parl. Hist_. xv. 1360.
[1161] Mr. Sheridan was then reading lectures upon Oratory at Bath,
where Derrick was Master of the Ceremonies; or, as the phrase is, KING.
BOSWELL. Dr. Parr, who knew Sheridan well, describes him 'as a
wrong-headed, whimsical man.' 'I remember,' he continues, 'hearing one
of his daughters, in the house where I lodged, triumphantly repeat
Dryden's _Ode upon St. Cecilia's Day_, according to the instruction
given to her by her father. Take a sample:--
"_None_ but the brave
None but the _brave_.
None _but_ the brave deserve the fair."
Naughty Richard [R. B. Sheridan], like Gallio, seemed to care nought for
these things.' Moore's _Sheridan_, i. 9, 11. Sheridan writing from
Dublin on Dec. 7, 1771, says:--'Never was party violence carried to such
a height as in this session; the House [the Irish House of Parliament]
seldom breaking up till eleven or twelve at night. From these contests
the desire of improving in the article of elocution is become very
general. There are no less than five persons of rank and fortune now
waiting my leisure to become my pupils.' _Ib_. p. 60. See _post_,
July 28, 1763.
[1162] Bonnell Thornton. See _post_ July 1, 1763.
[1163] Lloyd was one of a remarkable group of Westminster boys. He was a
school-fellow not only of Churchill, the elder Colman, and Cumberland,
buy also of Cowper and Warren Hastings. Bonnell Thornton was a few years
their senior. Not many weeks after this meeting with Boswell, Lloyd was
in the Fleet prison. Churchill in _Indepence_(_Poems_ ii 310) thus
addresses the Patrons of the age:--
'Hence, ye vain boasters, to the Fleet repair
And ask, with blushes ask if Lloyd is there.'
Of the four men who thus enlivened Boswell, two were dead before the end
of the following year. Churchill went first. When Lloyd heard of his
death, '"I shall follow poor Charles," was all he said, as he went to
the bed from which he never rose again.' Thornton lived three or four
years longer, Forster's _Essays_, ii 217, 270, 289. See also his _Life
of Goldsmith_ i. 264, for an account how 'Lloyd invited Goldsmith to sup
with some friends of Grub Street, and left him to pay the reckoning.'
Thornton, Lloyd, Colman, Cowper, and Joseph Hill, to whom Cowper's
famous _Epistle_ was addressed, had at one time been members of the
Nonsense Club. Southey's _Cowper_, i. 37.
[1164] The author of the well-known sermons, see _post_, under Dec. 21,
1776.
[1165] See _post_, under Dec. 9, 1784.
[1166] See _post_, Feb. 7, 1775, under Dec. 24, 1783, and Boswell's
_Hebrides_, Nov. 10, 1773.
[1167] 'Sir,' he said to Reynolds, 'a man might write such stuff for
ever, if he would _abandon_ his mind to it;' _post_, under March
30, 1783.
[1168] 'Or behind the screen' some one might have added, _ante_, i. 163.
[1169] Wesley was told that a whole waggon-load of Methodists had been
lately brought before a Justice of the Peace. When he asked what they
were charged with, one replied, 'Why they pretended to be better than
other people, and besides they prayed from morning to night.' Wesley's
_Journal_, i. 361. See also _post_, 1780, near the end of Mr. Langton's
_Collection_.
[1170] 'The progress which the understanding makes through a book has'
he said, 'more pain than pleasure in it;' _post_, May 1, 1783.
[1171] _Matthew_, vi. 16.
[1172] Boswell, it is clear, in the early days of his acquaintance with
Johnson often led the talk to this subject. See _post_, June 25, July
14, 21, and 28, 1763.
[1173] See _post_, April 7, 1778.
[1174] He finished his day, 'however late it might be,' by taking tea at
Miss Williams's lodgings; _post_, July 1, 1763.
[1175] See _post_, under Feb. 15, 1766, Feb. 1767, March 20, 1776, and
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 20, 1773, where Johnson says:--'I have been
trying to cure my laziness all my life, and could not do it.' It was
this kind of life that caused so much of the remorse which is seen in
his _Prayers and Meditations_.
[1176] Horace Walpole writing on June 12, 1759 (_Letters_, iii. 231),
says:--'A war that reaches from Muscovy to Alsace, and from Madras to
California, don't produce an article half so long as Mr. Johnson's
riding three horses at once.' I have a curious copper-plate showing
Johnson standing on one, or two, and leading a third horse in full
speed.' It bears the date of November 1758. See _post_, April 3, 1778.
[1177] In the impudent _Correspondence_ (pp. 63, 65) which Boswell and
Andrew Erskine published this year, Boswell shows why he wished to enter
the Guards. 'My fondness for the Guards,' he writes, 'must appear very
strange to you, who have a rooted antipathy at the glare of scarlet. But
I must inform you, that there is a city called London, for which I have
as violent an affection as the most romantic lover ever had for his
mistress.... I am thinking of the brilliant scenes of happiness, which I
shall enjoy as an officer of the guards. How I shall be acquainted with
all the grandeur of a court, and all the elegance of dress and
diversions; become a favourite of ministers of state, and the adoration
of ladies of quality, beauty, and fortune! How many parties of pleasure
shall I have in town! How many fine jaunts to the noble seats of dukes,
lords, and members of parliament in the country! I am thinking of the
perfect knowledge which I shall acquire of men and manners, of the
intimacies which I shall have the honour to form with the learned and
ingenious in every science, and of the many amusing literary anecdotes
which I shall pick up,' etc. Boswell, in his _Hebrides_ (Aug. 18, 1773),
says of himself:--'His inclination was to be a soldier; but his father,
a respectable Judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law.'
[1178] A row of tenements in the Strand, between Wych Street and Temple
Bar, and 'so called from the butchers' shambles on the south side.'
(_Strype_, B. iv. p. 118.) Butcher Row was pulled down in 1813, and the
present Pickett Street erected in its stead. P. CUNNINGHAM. In _Humphry
Clinker_, in the letter of June 10, one of the poor authors is described
as having been 'reduced to a woollen night-cap and living upon
sheep's-trotters, up three pair of stairs backward in Butcher Row.'
[1179] Cibber was poet-laureate from 1730 to 1757. Horace Walpole
describes him as 'that good humoured and honest veteran, so unworthily
aspersed by Pope, whose _Memoirs_, with one or two of his comedies, will
secure his fame, in spite of all the abuse of his contemporaries.' His
successor Whitehead, Walpole calls 'a man of a placid genius.' _Reign of
George II_, iii. 81. See _ante_, pp. 149, 185, and _post_, Oct. 19,
1769, May 15, 1776, and Sept. 21, 1777.
[1180] The following quotations show the difference of style in the two
poets:--
COLLEY GIBBER.
'When her pride, fierce in arms,
Would to Europe give law;
At her cost let her come,
To our cheer of huzza!
Not lightning with thunder more terrible darts,
Than the burst of huzza from our bold _British_ hearts.'
_Gent. Mag_. xxv. 515.
WM. WHITEHEAD.
'Ye guardian powers, to whose command,
At Nature's birth, th' Almighty mind
The delegated task assign'd
To watch o'er Albion's favour'd land,
What time your hosts with choral lay,
Emerging from its kindred deep,
Applausive hail'd each verdant steep,
And white rock, glitt'ring to the new-born day!'
_Ib_. xxix. 32.
[1181] See _ante_, p. 167.
[1182] 'Whitehead was for some while Garrick's "reader" of new plays for
Drury-lane.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 41. See _post_, April 25, 1778,
note. The verses to Garrick are given in Chalmers's _English Poets_,
xvii. 222.
[1183] 'In 1757 Gray published _The Progress of Poetry_ and _The Bard_,
two compositions at which the readers of poetry were at first content to
gaze in mute amazement. Some that tried them confessed their inability
to understand them.... Garrick wrote a few lines in their praise. Some
hardy champions undertook to rescue them from neglect; and in a short
time many were content to be shown beauties which they could not see.'
Johnson's _Works_, viii. 478. See _post_, March 28, and April 2, 1775,
and 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. Goldsmith, no doubt, attacked
Gray among 'the misguided innovators,' of whom he said in his _Life of
Parnell_:--'They have adopted a language of their own, and call upon
mankind for admiration. All those who do not understand them are silent,
and those who make out their meaning are willing to praise to show they
understand.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, iv. 22.
[1184] Johnson, perhaps, refers to the anonymous critic quoted by Mason
in his notes on this Ode, who says:--'This abrupt execration plunges the
reader into that sudden fearful perplexity which is designed to
predominate through the whole.' Mason's _Gray_, ed. 1807, i. 96.
[1185] 'Of the first stanza [of _The Bard_] the abrupt beginning has
been celebrated; but technical beauties can give praise only to the
inventor. It is in the power of any man to rush abruptly upon his
subject that has read the ballad of _Johnny Armstrong_.' Johnson's
_Works_, viii. 485.
[1186] My friend Mr. Malone, in his valuable comments on Shakspeare, has
traced in that great poet the _disjecta membra_ of these lines. BOSWELL.
Gray, in the edition of _The Bard_ of the year 1768, in a note on these
lines had quoted from _King John_, act v. sc. 1:--'Mocking the air with
colours idly spread.' Gosse's _Gray_, i. 41. But Malone quotes also from
_Macbeth_, act i. sc. 2:--
'Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
And fan our people cold.'
'Out of these passages,' he said, 'Mr. Gray seems to have framed the
first stanza of his celebrated _Ode_.' Malone's _Shakespeare_, xv. 344.
[1187] Cradock records (_Memoirs_, 1.230) that Goldsmith said to
him:--'You are so attached to Kurd, Gray, and Mason, that you think
nothing good can proceed but out of that formal school;--now, I'll mend
Gray's _Elegy_ by leaving out an idle word in every line.
"The curfew tolls the knell of day,
The lowing herd winds o'er the lea
The ploughman homeward plods his way
And---"
Enough, enough, I have no ear for more.'
[1188] So, less than two years later, Boswell opened his mind to Paoli.
'My time passed here in the most agreeable manner. I enjoyed a sort of
luxury of noble sentiment. Paoli became more affable with me. I made
myself known to him.' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 167.
[1189] See _ante_, p. 67.
[1190] See _post_, Sept. 22, 1777.
[1191] See _post_, March 30, 1778, where in speaking of the appearance
of spirits after death he says:--'All argument is against it; but all
belief is for it.' See also _ante_, p. 343, and _post_, April 15, 1778,
under May 4, 1779, April 15, 1781, and June 12, 1784.
[1192] The caricature begins:--
'Pomposo, insolent and loud
Vain idol of a _scribbling_ crowd,
Whose very name inspires an awe
Whose ev'ry word is Sense and Law.'
Churchill's _Poems_, i. 216.
[1193] The chief impostor, a man of the name of Parsons, had, it should
seem, set his daughter to play the part of the ghost in order to pay out
a grudge against a man who had sued him for a debt. The ghost was made
to accuse this man of poisoning his sister-in-law, and to declare that
she should only be at ease in her mind if he were hanged. 'When Parsons
stood on the Pillory at the end of Cock Lane, instead of being pelted,
he had money given him.' _Gent. Mag_. xxxii. 43, 82, and xxxiii. 144.
[1194] Horace Walpole, writing on Feb. 2, 1762 (_Letters_, iii. 481),
says:--'I could send you volumes on the Ghost, and I believe, if I were
to stay a little, I might send its _life_, dedicated to my Lord
Dartmouth, by the Ordinary of Newgate, its two great patrons. A drunken
parish clerk set it on foot out of revenge, the Methodists have adopted
it, and the whole town of London think of nothing else.... I went to
hear it, for it is not an _apparition_, but an _audition_, ... the Duke
of York, Lady Northumberland, Lady Mary Coke, Lord Hertford, and I, all
in one Hackney-coach: it rained torrents; yet the lane was full of mob,
and the house so full we could not get in.' See _post_, April 10, 1778.
[1195] Described by Goldsmith in _Retaliation_ as 'The scourge of
impostors, the terror of quacks.' See _ante_, p. 229.
[1196] The account was as follows:--'On the night of the 1st of February
[1762] many gentlemen eminent for their rank and character were, by the
invitation of the Reverend Mr. Aldrich, of Clerkenwell, assembled at his
house, for the examination of the noises supposed to be made by a
departed spirit, for the detection of some enormous crime.
'About ten at night the gentlemen met in the chamber in which the girl,
supposed to be disturbed by a spirit, had, with proper caution, been put
to bed by several ladies. They sat rather more than an hour, and hearing
nothing, went down stairs, when they interrogated the father of the
girl, who denied, in the strongest terms, any knowledge or belief
of fraud.
'The supposed spirit had before publickly promised, by an affirmative
knock, that it would attend one of the gentlemen into the vault under
the Church of St. John, Clerkenwell, where the body is deposited, and
give a token of her presence there, by a knock upon her coffin; it was
therefore determined to make this trial of the existence or veracity of
the supposed spirit.
'While they were enquiring and deliberating, they were summoned into the
girl's chamber by some ladies who were near her bed, and who had heard
knocks and scratches. When the gentlemen entered, the girl declared that
she felt the spirit like a mouse upon her back, and was required to hold
her hands out of bed. From that time, though the spirit was very
solemnly required to manifest its existence by appearance, by impression
on the hand or body of any present, by scratches, knocks, or any other
agency, no evidence of any preter-natural power was exhibited.
'The spirit was then very seriously advertised that the person to whom
the promise was made of striking the coffin, was then about to visit the
vault, and that the performance of the promise was then claimed. The
company at one o'clock went into the church, and the gentleman to whom
the promise was made, went with another into the vault. The spirit was
solemnly required to perform its promise, but nothing more than silence
ensued: the person supposed to be accused by the spirit, then went down
with several others, but no effect was perceived. Upon their return they
examined the girl, but could draw no confession from her. Between two
and three she desired and was permitted to go home with her father.
'It is, therefore, the opinion of the whole assembly, that the child has
some art of making or counterfeiting a particular noise, and that there
is no agency of any higher cause.' BOSWELL. _Gent. Mag_. xxxii. 81. The
following MS. letter is in the British Museum:--
'REVD. SIR,
The appointment for the examination stands as it did when I saw you
last, viz., between 8 and 9 this evening. Mr. Johnson was applied to by
a friend of mine soon after you left him, and promised to be with us.
Should be glad, if convenient, you'd show him the way hither. Mrs.
Oakes, of Dr. Macauley's recommendation, I should be glad to have here
on the occasion; and think it would do honour to the list of examiners
to have Dr. Macauley with us.
I am, Dear Sir,
your most obedient servant,
STE. ALDRICH.
If Dr Macauley can conveniently attend, should be glad you'd acquaint
Lord Dartmouth with it, who seemed to be at loss to recommend a
gentleman of the faculty at his end of the town.
St. John's Square. Monday noon.
To the Revd. Dr. Douglas.'
Endorsed 'Mr. Aldrich, Feb. 1762, about the Cock Lane
ghost.--Examination at his house.'
[1197] Boswell was with Paoli when news came that a Corsican under
sentence of death 'had consented to accept of his life, upon condition
of becoming hangman. This made a great noise among the Corsicans, who
were enraged at the creature, and said their nation was now disgraced.
Paoli did not think so. He said to me:--"I am glad of this. It will be
of service. It will contribute to form us to a just subordination. As we
must have Corsican tailours, and Corsican shoemakers, we must also have
a Corsican hangman."' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 201. See _post_, July 20
and 21, 1763, April 13, 1773, and March 28, 1775.
[1198] 'Mallet's Dramas had their day, a short day, and are forgotten.'
Johnson's _Works_, viii. 468.
[1199] See _ante_, p. 384, note.
[1200] 'A man had heard that Dempster was very clever, and therefore
expected that he could say nothing but good things. Being brought
acquainted, Mr. Dempster said to him with much politeness, "I hope, Sir,
your lady and family are well." "Ay, ay, man," said he, "pray where is
the great wit in that speech?"' _Boswelliana_, p. 307. Mr. Dempster is
mentioned by Burns in _The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer to the Scotch
Representatives in the House of Commons_:--'Dempster, a true-blue Scot
I'se warran.' In 1769 he was elected member for the Forfar Boroughs.
_Parl. Hist_. xvi. 453.
[1201] _The Critical Review_, in which Mallet himself sometimes wrote,
characterised this pamphlet as 'the crude efforts of envy, petulance and
self conceit.' There being thus three epithets, we, the three authours,
had a humourous contention how each should be appropriated. BOSWELL.
[1202] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 86) talks of the chiefs 'gradually
degenerating from patriarchal rulers to rapacious landlords.' In
Boswell's _Hebrides_, the subject is often examined.
[1203] See _ante_, i. 365.
[1204] 'Dr. Burney spoke with great warmth of affection of Dr. Johnson;
said he was the kindest creature in the world when he thought he was
loved and respected by others. He would play the fool among friends, but
he required deference. It was necessary to ask questions and make no
assertion. If you said two and two make four, he would say, "How will
you prove that, Sir?" Dr. Burney seemed amiably sensitive to every
unfavourable remark on his old friend.' H. C. Robinson's _Diary_,
iii. 485.
[1205] See _post_, April 24, 1777, note, and Oct. l0, 1779, where he
consults Johnson about the study of Greek. He formed wishes, scarcely
plans of study but never studied.
[1206] See _post_, Feb. 18, 1777. It was Graham who so insulted
Goldsmith by saying:--''Tis not you I mean, Dr. _Minor_; 'tis Dr.
_Major_ there.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24, 1773.
[1207] See _post_, Sept. 19, 1777.
[1208] Of Mathematics Goldsmith wrote:--'This seems a science to which
the meanest intellects are equal.' See _post_, March 15, 1776, note.
[1209] In his _Present State of Polite Learning_, ch. 13 (_Misc. Works_,
i. 266), Goldsmith writes:--'A man who is whirled through Europe in a
post-chaise, and the pilgrim who walks the grand tour on foot, will form
very different conclusions. _Haud inexpertus loquor_.' The last three
words are omitted in the second edition.
[1210] George Primrose in the _Vicar of Wakefield_ (ch. 20), after
describing these disputations, says:--'In this manner I fought my way
towards England.'
[1211] Dr. Warton wrote to his brother on Jan. 22, 1766:--'Of all solemn
coxcombs Goldsmith is the first; yet sensible--but affects to use
Johnson's hard words in conversation.' Wooll's _Warton_, p. 312.
[1212] It was long believed that the author of one of Goldsmith's early
works was Lord Lyttelton. '"Whenever I write anything," said Goldsmith,
"I think the public _make a point_ to know nothing about it." So the
present book was issued as a _History of England in a series of Letters
from a Nobleman to his Son_. The persuasion at last became general that
the author was Lord Lyttelton, and the name of that grave good lord is
occasionally still seen affixed to it on the bookstalls.' Forster's
_Goldsmith_, i. 301. The _Traveller_ was the first of his works to which
he put his name. It was published in 1764. 16. p. 364.