Chapter 12

'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.

[1150] 'Charles Fox said that Mrs. Sheridan's _Sydney Biddulph_ was the 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_,