Chapter 4

of honesty from the beginning of his life to the end. He could for ever wage war with knaves and malice, and preserve his temper; could know men, and yet feel for them; could smile when opposed, and be gentle after triumph.'

[377] Johnson in the _Life of Milton_ describes himself:--'Milton was naturally a thinker for himself, confident of his own abilities, and disdainful of help or hindrance. From his contemporaries he neither courted nor received support; there is in his writings nothing by which the pride of other authors might be gratified, or favour gained; no exchange of praise, nor solicitation of support.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 142. See _post_ Feb. 1766, for Johnson's opinion on 'courting great men.'

[378] In a billet written by Mr. Pope in the following year, this school is said to have been in _Shropshire_; but as it appears from a letter from Earl Gower, that the trustees of it were 'some worthy gentlemen in Johnson's neighbourhood,' I in my first edition suggested that Pope must have, by mistake, written Shropshire, instead of Staffordshire. But I have since been obliged to Mr. Spearing, attorney-at-law, for the following information:--'William Adams, formerly citizen and haberdasher of London, founded a school at Newport, in the county of Salop, by deed dated 27th November, 1656, by which he granted "the yearly sum of _sixty pounds_ to such able and learned schoolmaster, from time to time, being of godly life and conversation, who should have been educated at one of the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, and had taken the degree of _Master of Arts_, and was well read in the Greek and Latin tongues, as should be nominated from time to time by the said William Adams, during his life, and after the decease of the said William Adams, by the Governours (namely, the Master and Wardens of the Haberdashers' Company of the City of London) and their successors." The manour and lands out of which the revenues for the maintenance of the school were to issue are situate _at Knighton and Adbaston, in the county of Stafford_.' From the foregoing account of this foundation, particularly the circumstances of the salary being sixty pounds, and the degree of Master of Arts being a requisite qualification in the teacher, it seemed probable that this was the school in contemplation; and that Lord Gower erroneously supposed that the gentlemen who possessed the lands, out of which the revenues issued, were trustees of the charity.

Such was probable conjecture. But in the _Gent. Mag_. for May, 1793, there is a letter from Mr. Henn, one of the masters of the school of Appleby, in Leicestershire, in which he writes as follows:--

'I compared time and circumstance together, in order to discover whether the school in question might not be this of Appleby. Some of the trustees at that period were "worthy gentlemen of the neighbourhood of Litchfield." Appleby itself is not far from the neighbourhood of Litchfield. The salary, the degree requisite, together with the _time of election_, all agreeing with the statutes of Appleby. The election, as said in the letter, "could not be delayed longer than the 11th of next month," which was the 11th of September, just three months after the annual audit-day of Appleby school, which is always on the 11th of June; and the statutes enjoin _ne ullius praeceptorum electio diutius tribus mensibus moraretur, etc_.

'These I thought to be convincing proofs that my conjecture was not ill-founded, and that, in a future edition of that book, the circumstance might be recorded as fact.

'But what banishes every shadow of doubt is the _Minute-book_ of the school, which declares the headmastership to be _at that time_ VACANT.'

I cannot omit returning thanks to this learned gentleman for the very handsome manner in which he has in that letter been so good as to speak of this work. BOSWELL.

[379] 'What a pity it is, Sir,' said to him Sir William Scott, afterwards Lord Stowell, 'that you did not follow the profession of the law! You might have been Lord Chancellor of Great Britain' _Post_, April 17, 1778.

[380] See _post_, beginning of 1770.

[381] See _post_, March 21, 1775.

[382] In the _Weekly Miscellany_, October 21, 1738, there appeared the following advertisement:--'Just published, Proposals for printing the _History of the Council of Trent_, translated from the Italian of Father Paul Sarpi; with the Authour's Life, and Notes theological, historical, and critical, from the French edition of Dr. Le Courayer. To which are added, Observations on the History, and Notes and Illustrations from various Authours, both printed and manuscript. By S. Johnson. 1. The work will consist of two hundred sheets, and be two volumes in quarto, printed on good paper and letter. 2. The price will be 18_s_. each volume, to be paid, half-a-guinea at the delivery of the first volume, and the rest at the delivery of the second volume in sheets. 3. Two-pence to be abated for every sheet less than two hundred. It may be had on a large paper, in three volumes, at the price of three guineas; one to be paid at the time of subscribing, another at the delivery of the first, and the rest at the delivery of the other volumes. The work is now in the press, and will be diligently prosecuted. Subscriptions are taken in by Mr. Dodsley in Pall-Mall, Mr. Rivington in St. Paul's Church-yard, by E. Cave at St. John's Gate, and the Translator, at No. 6, in Castle-street by Cavendish-square.' BOSWELL.

[383] They afterwards appeared in the _Gent. Mag_. [viii. 486] with this title--'_Verses to Lady Firebrace, at Bury Assizes_.' BOSWELL.

[384] Du Halde's Description of China was then publishing by Mr. Cave in weekly numbers, whence Johnson was to select pieces for the embellishment of the _Magazine_. NICHOLS. BOSWELL.

[385] The premium of forty pounds proposed for the best poem on the Divine Attributes is here alluded to. NICHOLS. BOSWELL.

[386] The Compositors in Mr. Cave's printing-office, who appear by this letter to have then waited for copy. NICHOLS. BOSWELL.

[387] Twenty years later, when he was lodging in the Temple, he had fasted for two days at a time; 'he had drunk tea, but eaten no bread; this was no intentional fasting, but happened just in the course of a literary life.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 4, 1773. See _post_, Aug. 5, 1763.

[388] Birch MSS. Brit. Mus. 4323. BOSWELL.

[389] See _post_, under Dec. 30, 1747, and Oct. 24, 1780.

[390] See _post_, 1750.

[391] This book was published. BOSWELL. I have not been able to find it.

[392] _The Historie of four-footed beasts and serpents_. By Edward Topsell. London, 1607. Isaac Walton, in the _Complete Angler_, more than once quotes Topsel. See p. 99 in the reprint of the first edition, where he says:--'As our Topsel hath with great diligence observed.'

[393] In this preface he describes some pieces as 'deserving no other fate than to be hissed, torn, and forgotten. Johnson's _Works_, v. 346.

[394] The letter to Mr. Urban in the January number of this year (p. 3) is, I believe, by Johnson.

[395] 'Yet did Boerhaave not suffer one branch of science to withdraw his attention from others; anatomy did not withhold him from chymistry, nor chymistry, enchanting as it is, from the study of botany.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 276. See _post_, under Sept. 9, 1779.

[396] _Gent. Mag_. viii. 210, and Johnson's _Works_, i. 170.

[397] What these verses are is not clear. On p. 372 there is an epigram _Ad Elisam Popi Horto Lauras carpentem_, of which on p. 429 there are three translations. That by Urbanus may be Johnson's.

[398] _Ib_. p. 654, and Johnson's _Works_, i. 170. On p. 211 of this volume of the _Gent. Mag_. is given the epigram 'To a lady who spoke in defence of liberty.' This was 'Molly Aston' mentioned _ante_, p. 83.

[399] To the year 1739 belongs _Considerations on the Case of Dr. T[rapp]s Sermons. Abridged by Mr. Cave, 1739_; first published in the _Gent. Mag_. of July 1787. (See _post_ under Nov. 5, 1784, note.) Cave had begun to publish in the _Gent. Mag_. an abridgment of four sermons preached by Trapp against Whitefield. He stopped short in the publication, deterred perhaps by the threat of a prosecution for an infringement of copy-right. 'On all difficult occasions,' writes the Editor in 1787, 'Johnson was Cave's oracle; and the paper now before us was certainly written on that occasion.' Johnson argues that abridgments are not only legal but also justifiable. 'The design of an abridgment is to benefit mankind by facilitating the attainment of knowledge ... for as an incorrect book is lawfully criticised, and false assertions justly confuted ... so a tedious volume may no less lawfully be abridged, because it is better that the proprietors should suffer some damage, than that the acquisition of knowledge should be obstructed with unnecessary difficulties, and the valuable hours of thousands thrown away.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 465. Whether we have here Johnson's own opinion cannot be known. He was writing as Cave's advocate. See also Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 20, 1773.

[400] In his _Life of Thomson_ Johnson writes:--'About this time the act was passed for licensing plays, of which the first operation was the prohibition of _Gustavus Vasa_, a tragedy of Mr. Brooke, whom the public recompensed by a very liberal subscription; the next was the refusal of _Edward and Eleonora_, offered by Thomson. It is hard to discover why either play should have been obstructed.' Johnson's Works, viii. 373.

[401] The Inscription and the Translation of it are preserved in the _London Magazine_ for the year 1739, p. 244. BOSWELL. See Johnson's _Works_, vi. 89.

[402] It is a little heavy in its humour, and does not compare well with the like writings of Swift and the earlier wits.

[403] Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 72.

[404]

'Sic fatus senior, telumque imbelle sine ictu Conjecit.' 'So spake the elder, and cast forth a toothless spear and vain.'

Morris, _Æneids_, ii. 544.

[405]

'Get all your verses printed fair, Then let them well be dried; And Curll must have a special care To leave the margin wide. Lend these to paper-sparing Pope; And when he sits to write, No letter with an envelope Could give him more delight.'

_Advice to the Grub Street Verse-Writers_. (Swift's _Works_, 1803, xi 32.) Nichols, in a note on this passage, says:--'The original copy of Pope's _Homer_ is almost entirely written on the covers of letters, and sometimes between the lines of the letters themselves.' Johnson, in his _Life of Pope_, writes:--'Of Pope's domestic character frugality was a part eminently remarkable.... This general care must be universally approved; but it sometimes appeared in petty artifices of parsimony, such as the practice of writing his compositions on the back of letters, as may be seen in the remaining copy of the _Iliad_, by which perhaps in five years five shillings were saved.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 312.

[406] See note, p. 132. BOSWELL.

[407] The _Marmor Norfolciense_, price one shilling, is advertised in the _Gent. Mag_. for 1739 (p. 220) among the books for April.

[408] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 8. BOSWELL.

[409] According to Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'Every person who knew Dr. Johnson must have observed that the moment he was left out of the conversation, whether from his deafness or from whatever cause, but a few minutes without speaking or listening, his mind appeared to be preparing itself. He fell into a reverie accompanied with strange antic gestures; but this he never did when his mind was engaged by the conversation. These were therefore improperly called convulsions, which imply involuntary contortions; whereas, a word addressed to him, his attention was recovered. Sometimes, indeed, it would be near a minute before he would give an answer, looking as if he laboured to bring his mind to bear on the question' (Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 456). 'I still, however, think,' wrote Boswell, 'that these gestures were involuntary; for surely had not that been the case, he would have restrained them in the public streets' (Boswell's _Hebrides_, under date of Aug. 11, 1773, note). Dr. T. Campbell, in his _Diary of a Visit to England_, p. 33, writing of Johnson on March 16, 1775, says:--'He has the aspect of an idiot, without the faintest ray of sense gleaming from any one feature--with the most awkward garb, and unpowdered grey wig, on one side only of his head--he is for ever dancing the devil's jig, and sometimes he makes the most driveling effort to whistle some thought in his absent paroxysms.' Miss Burney thus describes him when she first saw him in 1778:--'Soon after we were seated this great man entered. I have so true a veneration for him that the very sight of him inspires me with delight and reverence, notwithstanding the cruel infirmities to which he is subject; for he has almost perpetual convulsive movements, either of his hands, lips, feet, or knees, and sometimes of all together.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 63. See _post_, under March 30, 1783, Boswell's note on Johnson's peculiarities.

[410] 'Solitude,' wrote Reynolds, 'to him was horror; nor would he ever trust himself alone but when employed in writing or reading. He has often begged me to go home with him to prevent his being alone in the coach. Any company was better than none; by which he connected himself with many mean persons whose presence he could command.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 455. Johnson writing to Mrs. Thrale, said:--'If the world be worth winning, let us enjoy it; if it is to be despised, let us despise it by conviction. But the world is not to be despised but as it is compared with something better. Company is in itself better than solitude, and pleasure better than indolence.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 242. In _The Idler_, No. 32, he wrote:--'Others are afraid to be alone, and amuse themselves by a perpetual succession of companions; but the difference is not great; in solitude we have our dreams to ourselves, and in company we agree to dream in concert. The end sought in both is forgetfulness of ourselves.' In _The Rambler_, No. 5, he wrote:--'It may be laid down as a position which will seldom deceive, that when a man cannot bear his own company, there is something wrong. He must fly from himself, either because he feels a tediousness in life from the equipoise of an empty mind ... or he must be afraid of the intrusion of some unpleasing ideas, and, perhaps, is struggling to escape from the remembrance of a loss, the fear of a calamity, or some other thought of greater horror.'

Cowper, whose temperament was in some respects not unlike Johnson's, wrote:--'A vacant hour is my abhorrence; because, when I am not occupied, I suffer under the whole influence of my unhappy temperament.' Southey's _Cowper_, vi. 146.

[411] Richardson was of the same way of thinking as Hogarth. Writing of a speech made at the Oxford Commemoration of 1754 by the Jacobite Dr. King (see _post_, Feb. 1755), he said:--'There cannot be a greater instance of the lenity of the government he abuses than his pestilent harangues so publicly made with impunity furnishes (_sic_) all his readers with.'--_Rich. Corresp_. ii. 197.

[412] Impartial posterity may, perhaps, be as little inclined as Dr. Johnson was to justify the uncommon rigour exercised in the case of Dr. Archibald Cameron. He was an amiable and truly honest man; and his offence was owing to a generous, though mistaken principle of duty. Being obliged, after 1746, to give up his profession as a physician, and to go into foreign parts, he was honoured with the rank of Colonel, both in the French and Spanish service. He was a son of the ancient and respectable family of Cameron, of Lochiel; and his brother, who was the Chief of that brave clan, distinguished himself by moderation and humanity, while the Highland army marched victorious through Scotland. It is remarkable of this Chief, that though he had earnestly remonstrated against the attempt as hopeless, he was of too heroick a spirit not to venture his life and fortune in the cause, when personally asked by him whom he thought his prince. BOSWELL.

Sir Walter Scott states, in his Introduction to _Redgauntlet_, that the government of George II were in possession of sufficient evidence that Dr. Cameron had returned to the Highlands, _not_, as he alleged on his trial, for family affairs merely, but as the secret agent of the Pretender in a new scheme of rebellion: the ministers, however, preferred trying this indefatigable partisan on the ground of his undeniable share in the insurrection of 1745, rather than rescuing themselves and their master from the charge of harshness, at the expense of making it universally known, that a fresh rebellion had been in agitation so late as 1752. LOCKHART. He was executed on June 7, 1753. _Gent. Mag_. xxiii. 292. Lord Campbell (_Lives of the Chancellors_, v. 109) says:--'I regard his execution as a wanton atrocity.' Horace Walpole, however, inclined to the belief that Cameron was engaged in a new scheme of rebellion. Walpole's _Memoirs of George II_, i. 333.

[413] Horace Walpole says that towards convicts under sentence of death 'George II's disposition in general was merciful, if the offence was not murder.' He mentions, however, a dreadful exception, when the King sent to the gallows at Oxford a young man who had been 'guilty of a most trifling forgery,' though he had been recommended to mercy by the Judge, who 'had assured him his pardon.' Mercy was refused, merely because the Judge, Willes, 'was attached to the Prince of Wales.' It is very likely that this was one of Johnson's 'instances,' as it had happened about four years earlier, and as an account of the young man had been published by an Oxonian. Walpole's _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_, i. 175.

[414] It is strange that when Johnson had been sixteen years in London he should not be known to Hogarth by sight. 'Mr. Hogarth,' writes Mrs. Piozzi, 'was used to be very earnest that I should obtain the acquaintance, and if possible, the friendship of Dr. Johnson, "whose conversation was to the talk of other men, like Titian's painting compared to Hudson's," he said.... Of Dr. Johnson, when my father and he were talking together about him one day, "That man," says Hogarth, "is not contented with believing the Bible, but he fairly resolves, I think, to believe nothing _but_ the Bible."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 136.

[415] On October 29 of this year James Boswell was born.

[416] In this preface is found the following lively passage:--'The Roman Gazetteers are defective in several material ornaments of style. They never end an article with the mystical hint, _this occasions great speculation_. They seem to have been ignorant of such engaging introductions as, _we hear it is strongly reported_; and of that ingenious, but thread-bare excuse for a downright lie, _it wants confirmation_.'

[417] The _Lives_ of Blake and Drake were certainly written with a political aim. The war with Spain was going on, and the Tory party was doing its utmost to rouse the country against the Spaniards. It was 'a time,' according to Johnson, 'when the nation was engaged in a war with an enemy, whose insults, ravages, and barbarities have long called for vengeance.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 293.

[418] Barretier's childhood surpassed even that of J. S. Mill. At the age of nine he was master of five languages, Greek and Hebrew being two of them. 'In his twelfth year he applied more particularly to the study of the fathers.' At the age of fourteen he published _Anti-Artemonius; sive initium evangelii S. Joannis adversus Artemonium vindicatum_. The same year the University of Halle offered him the degree of doctor in philosophy. 'His theses, or philosophical positions, which he printed, ran through several editions in a few weeks.' He was a deep student of mathematics, and astronomy was his favourite subject. His health broke down under his studies, and he died in 1740 in the twentieth year of his age. Johnson's _Works_, vi. 376.

[419] He wrote also in 1756 _A Dissertation on the Epitaphs written by Pope_.

[420] See _post_, Oct. 16, 1769.

[421] In the original _and_. _Gent. Mag_. x. 464. The title of this poem as there given is:--'An epitaph upon the celebrated Claudy Philips, Musician, who died very poor.'

[422] The epitaph of Phillips is in the porch of Wolverhampton Church. The prose part of it is curious:--

'Near this place lies Charles Claudius Phillips, Whose absolute contempt of riches and inimitable performances upon the violin made him the admiration of all that knew him. He was born in Wales, made the tour of Europe, and, after the experience of both kinds of fortune, Died in 1732.'

Mr. Garrick appears not to have recited the verses correctly, the original being as follows:--

'Exalted soul, _thy various sounds_ could please The love-sick virgin and the gouty ease; Could jarring _crowds_, like old Amphion, move To beauteous order and harmonious love; Rest here in peace, till Angels bid thee rise, And meet thy Saviour's _consort_ in the skies.' BLAKEWAY.

_Consort_ is defined in Johnson's _Dictionary_ as _a number of instruments playing together_.

[423] I have no doubt that it was written in 1741; for the second line is clearly a parody of a line in the chorus of Cibber's _Birthday Ode_ for that year. The chorus is as follows:

'While thou our Master of the Main Revives Eliza's glorious reign, The great Plantagenets look down, And see _your_ race adorn your crown.'

_Gent. Mag_. xi. 549.

In the _Life of Barretier_ Johnson had also this fling at George II:--'Princes are commonly the last by whom merit is distinguished.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 381.

[424] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 23 and Nov. 21, 1773.

[425] Hester Lynch Salusbury, afterwards Mrs. Thrale, and later on Mrs. Piozzi, was born on Jan. 27, 1741.

[426] This piece is certainly not by Johnson. It contains more than one ungrammatical passage. It is impossible to believe that he wrote such a sentence as the following:--'Another having a cask of wine sealed up at the top, but his servant boring a hole at the bottom stole the greatest part of it away; sometime after, having called a friend to taste his wine, he found the vessel almost empty,' &c.

[427] Mr. Carlyle, by the use of the term 'Imaginary Editors' (_Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_, iii. 229), seems to imply that he does not hold with Boswell in assigning this piece to Johnson. I am inclined to think, nevertheless, that Boswell is right. If it is Johnson's it is doubly interesting as showing the method which he often followed in writing the Parliamentary Debates. When notes were given him, while for the most part he kept to the speaker's train of thoughts, he dealt with the language much as it pleased him. In the _Gent. Mag_. Cromwell speaks as if he were wearing a flowing wig and were addressing a Parliament of the days of George II. He is thus made to conclude Speech xi:--'For my part, could I multiply my person or dilate my power, I should dedicate myself wholly to this great end, in the prosecution of which I shall implore the blessing of God upon your counsels and endeavours.' _Gent. Mag_. xi. 100. The following are the words which correspond to this in the original:--'If I could help you to many, and multiply myself into many, that would be to serve you in regard to settlement.... But I shall pray to God Almighty that He would direct you to do what is according to His will. And this is that poor account I am able to give of myself in this thing.' Carlyle's _Cromwell_, iii. 255.

[428] See Appendix A.

[429] Lord Chesterfield.

[430] Duke of Newcastle.

[431] I suppose in another compilation of the same kind. BOSWELL.

[432] Doubtless, Lord Hardwick. BOSWELL.

[433] The delivery of letters by the penny-post 'was originally confined to the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark and the respective suburbs thereof.' In 1801 the postage was raised to twopence. The term 'suburbs' must have had a very limited signification, for it was not till 1831 that the limits of this delivery were extended to all places within three miles of the General Post Office. _Ninth Report of the Commissioners of the Post Office_, 1837, p. 4.

[434] Birch's _MSS. in the British Museum_, 4302. BOSWELL.

[435] See _post_, Dec. 1784, in Nichols's _Anecdotes_. If we may trust Hawkins, it is likely that Johnson's 'tenderness of conscience' cost Cave a good deal; for he writes that, while Johnson composed the _Debates_, the sale of the _Magazine_ increased from ten to fifteen thousand copies a month. 'Cave manifested his good fortune by buying an old coach and a pair of older horses.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, P. 123.

[436] I am assured that the editor is Mr. George Chalmers, whose commercial works are well known and esteemed. BOSWELL.

[437] The characteristic of Pulteney's oratory is thus given in Hazlitts _Northcole's Conversations_ (p. 288):--'Old Mr. Tolcher used to say of the famous Pulteney--"My Lord Bath always speaks in blank verse."'

[438] Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_, p. 100. BOSWELL.

[439] A bookseller of London. BOSWELL

[440] Not the Royal Society; but the Society for the encouragement of learning, of which Dr. Birch was a leading member. Their object was to assist authors in printing expensive works. It existed from about 1735 to 1746, when having incurred a considerable debt, it was dissolved. BOSWELL.

[441] There is no erasure here, but a mere blank; to fill up which may be an exercise for ingenious conjecture. BOSWELL.

[442] Johnson, writing to Dr. Taylor on June 10, 1742, says:--'I propose to get _Charles of Sweden_ ready for this winter, and shall therefore, as I imagine, be much engaged for some months with the dramatic writers into whom I have scarcely looked for many years. Keep _Irene_ close, you may send it back at your leisure.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 303. _Charles of Sweden_ must have been a play which he projected.

[443] The profligate sentiment was, that 'to tell a secret to a friend is no breach of fidelity, because the number of persons trusted is not multiplied, a man and his friend being virtually the same.' _Rambler_, No. 13.

[444] _Journal of a tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 167. [Sept. 10, 1773.] BOSWELL.

[445] This piece contains a passage in honour of some great critic. 'May the shade, at least, of one great English critick rest without disturbance; and may no man presume to insult his memory, who wants his learning, his reason, or his wit.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 182. Bentley had died on July 14 of this year, and there can be little question that Bentley is meant.

[446] See _post_, end of 1744.

[447] 'There is nothing to tell, dearest lady, but that he was insolent and I beat him, and that he was a blockhead and told of it, which I should never have done.... I have beat many a fellow, but the rest had the wit to hold their tongues.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 233. In the _Life of Pope_ Johnson thus mentions Osborne:--'Pope was ignorant enough of his own interest to make another change, and introduced Osborne contending for the prize among the booksellers [_Dunciad_, ii. 167]. Osborne was a man entirely destitute of shame, without sense of any disgrace but that of poverty.... The shafts of satire were directed equally in vain against Cibber and Osborne; being repelled by the impenetrable impudence of one, and deadened by the impassive dulness of the other.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 302.

[448] In the original _contentions_.

[449] 'Dec. 21, 1775. In the Paper Office there is a wight, called Thomas Astle, who lives like moths on old parchments.' Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 299.

[450] Savage died on Aug. 1, 1743, so that this letter is misplaced.

[451] The Plain Dealer was published in 1724, and contained some account of Savage. BOSWELL.

[452] In the _Gent. Mag_. for Sept. 1743 (p. 490) there is an epitaph on R----d S----e, Esq., which may perhaps be this inscription. 'His life was want,' this epitaph declares. It is certainly not the Runick Inscription in the number for March 1742, as Malone suggests; for the earliest possible date of this letter is seventeen months later.

[453] I have not discovered what this was. BOSWELL.

[454] The _Mag.-Extraordinary_ is perhaps the Supplement to the December number of each year.

[455] This essay contains one sentiment eminently Johnsonian. The writer had shown how patiently Confucius endured extreme indigence. He adds:--'This constancy cannot raise our admiration after his former conquest of himself; for how easily may he support pain who has been able to resist pleasure.' _Gent. Mag_. xii. 355.

[456] In this Preface there is a complaint that has been often repeated--'All kinds of learning have given way to politicks.'

[457] In the _Life of Pope_ (Johnson's _Works_, viii. 287) Johnson says that Crousaz, 'however little known or regarded here, was no mean antagonist'

[458] It is not easy to believe that Boswell had read this essay, for there is nothing metaphysical in what Johnson wrote. Two-thirds of the paper are a translation from Crousaz. Boswell does not seem to have distinguished between Crousaz's writings and Johnson's. We have here a striking instance of the way in which Cave sometimes treated his readers. One-third of this essay is given in the number for March, the rest in the number for November.

[459]

Angliacas inter pulcherrima Laura puellas, Mox uteri pondus depositura grave, Adsit, Laura, tibi facilis Lucina dolenti, Neve tibi noceat praenituisse Deae.

Mr. Hector was present when this Epigram was made _impromptu_. The first line was proposed by Dr. James, and Johnson was called upon by the company to finish it, which he instantly did. BOSWELL. Macaulay (_Essays_, i. 364) criticises Mr. Croker's criticism of this epigram.

[460] The lines with which this poem is introduced seem to show that it cannot be Johnson's. He was not the man to allow that haste of performance was any plea for indulgence. They are as follows:--'Though several translations of Mr. Pope's verses on his Grotto have already appeared, we hope that the following attempt, which, we are assured, was the casual amusement of half an hour during several solicitations to proceed, will neither be unacceptable to our readers, nor (these circumstances considered) dishonour the persons concerned by a hasty publication.' _Gent. Mag_. xiii. 550.

[461] See _Gent. Mag_. xiii. 560. I doubt whether this advertisement be from Johnson's hand. It is very unlikely that he should make the advertiser in one and the same paragraph when speaking of himself use _us_ and _mine_. Boswell does not mention the Preface to vol. iii. of the _Harkian Catalogue_. It is included in Johnson's _Works_ (v. 198). Its author, be he who he may, in speaking of literature, says:--'I have idly hoped to revive a taste well-nigh extinguished.'

[462] Johnson did not speak equally well of Dr. James's morals. 'He will not,' he wrote, 'pay for three box tickets which he took. It is a strange fellow.' The tickets were no doubt for Miss Williams's benefit (Croker's _Boswell_, 8vo. p. 101). See _ante_, p. 81, and _post_, March 28, 1776, end of 1780, note.

[463] See _post_, April 5, 1776.

[464] 'TO DR. MEAD.

'SIR,

'That the _Medicinal Dictionary_ is dedicated to you, is to be imputed only to your reputation for superior skill in those sciences which I have endeavoured to explain and facilitate: and you are, therefore, to consider this address, if it be agreeable to you, as one of the rewards of merit; and if, otherwise, as one of the inconveniences of eminence.

'However you shall receive it, my design cannot be disappointed; because this publick appeal to your judgement will shew that I do not found my hopes of approbation upon the ignorance of my readers, and that I fear his censure least, whose knowledge is most extensive.

'I am, Sir,

'Your most obedient

'humble servant,

'R. JAMES.'

BOSWELL. See _post_, May 16, 1778, where Johnson said, 'Dr. Mead lived more in the broad sunshine of life than almost any man.'

[465] Johnson was used to speak of him in this manner:--'Tom is a lively rogue; he remembers a great deal, and can tell many pleasant stories; but a pen is to Tom a torpedo, the touch of it benumbs his hand and his brain.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 209. Goldsmith in his _Life of Nash_ (Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 54) says:--'Nash was not born a writer, for whatever humour he might have in conversation, he used to call a pen his torpedo; whenever he grasped it, it benumbed all his faculties.' It is very likely that Nash borrowed this saying from Johnson. In Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 24, 1773, we read:--Dr. Birch being mentioned, Dr. Johnson said he had more anecdotes than any man. I said, Percy had a great many; that he flowed with them like one of the brooks here. JOHNSON. "If Percy is like one of the brooks here, Birch was like the River Thames. Birch excelled Percy in that as much as Percy excels Goldsmith." Disraeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, iii, 425) describes Dr. Birch as 'one to whom British history stands more indebted than to any superior author. He has enriched the British Museum by thousands of the most authentic documents of genuine secret history.'

[466] _Ante_, p. 140.

[467] In 1761 Mr. John Levett was returned for Lichfield, but on petition was declared to be not duly elected (_Parl. Hist_. xv. 1088). Perhaps he was already aiming at public life.

[468] One explanation may be found of Johnson's intimacy with Savage and with other men of loose character. 'He was,' writes Hawkins, 'one of the most quick-sighted men I ever knew in discovering the good and amiable qualities of others' (Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 50). 'He was,' says Boswell (_post_, April 13, 1778), 'willing to take men as they are, imperfect, and with a mixture of good and bad qualities.' How intimate the two men were is shown by the following passage in Johnson's _Life of Savage_:--'Savage left London in July, 1739, having taken leave with great tenderness of his friends, and parted from the author of this narrative with tears in his eyes.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 173.

[469] As a specimen of his temper, I insert the following letter from him to a noble Lord, to whom he was under great obligations, but who, on account of his bad conduct, was obliged to discard him. The original was in the hands of the late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq., one of His Majesty's Counsel learned in the law:

'_Right Honourable_ BRUTE, _and_ BOOBY,

'I find you want (as Mr. ---- is pleased to hint,) to swear away my life, that is, the life of your creditor, because he asks you for a debt.--The publick shall soon be acquainted with this, to judge whether you are not fitter to be an Irish Evidence, than to be an Irish Peer.--I defy and despise you.

'I am,

'Your determined adversary,

'R. S.'

BOSWELL. The noble Lord was no doubt Lord Tyrconnel. See Johnson's _Works_, viii. 140. Mr. Cust is mentioned _post_, p. 170.

[470] 'Savage took all opportunities of conversing familiarly with those who were most conspicuous at that time for their power or their influence; he watched their looser moments, and examined their domestic behaviour with that acuteness which nature had given him, and which the uncommon variety of his life had contributed to increase, and that inquisitiveness which must always be produced in a vigorous mind by an absolute freedom from all pressing or domestic engagements.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 135.

[471] 'Thus he spent his time in mean expedients and tormenting suspense, living for the greatest part in the fear of prosecutions from his creditors, and consequently skulking in obscure parts of the town, of which he was no stranger to the remotest corners.' _Ib_. p. 165.

[472] Sir John Hawkins gives the world to understand, that Johnson, 'being an admirer of genteel manners, was captivated by the address and demeanour of Savage, who, as to his exterior, was, to a remarkable degree, accomplished.' Hawkins's _Life_, p. 52. But Sir John's notions of gentility must appear somewhat ludicrous, from his stating the following circumstance as presumptive evidence that Savage was a good swordsman: 'That he understood the exercise of a gentleman's weapon, may be inferred from the use made of it in that rash encounter which is related in his life.' The dexterity here alluded to was, that Savage, in a nocturnal fit of drunkenness, stabbed a man at a coffee-house, and killed him; for which he was tried at the Old-Bailey, and found guilty of murder.

Johnson, indeed, describes him as having 'a grave and manly deportment, a solemn dignity of mien; but which, upon a nearer acquaintance, softened into an engaging easiness of manners.' [Johnson's _Works_, viii. 187.] How highly Johnson admired him for that knowledge which he himself so much cultivated, and what kindness he entertained for him, appears from the following lines in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for April, 1738, which I am assured were written by Johnson:

_'Ad_ RICARDUM SAVAGE.

'Humani studium generis cui pectore fervet O colat humanum te foveatque genus.'

BOSWELL. The epigram is inscribed Ad Ricardum Savage, Arm. Humani Generis Amatorem. _Gent. Mag_. viii. 210.

[473] The following striking proof of Johnson's extreme indigence, when he published the _Life of Savage_, was communicated to the author, by Mr. Richard Stow, of Apsley, in Bedfordshire, from the information of Mr. Walter Harte, author of the _Life of Gustavus Adolphus_:

'Soon after Savage's _Life_ was published, Mr. Harte dined with Edward Cave, and occasionally praised it. Soon after, meeting him, Cave said, 'You made a man very happy t'other day.'--'How could that be,' says Harte; 'nobody was there but ourselves.' Cave answered, by reminding him that a plate of victuals was sent behind a screen, which was to Johnson, dressed so shabbily, that he did not choose to appear; but on hearing the conversation, was highly delighted with the encomiums on his book.' MALONE. 'He desired much to be alone, yet he always loved good talk, and often would get behind the screen to hear it.' Great-Heart's account of Fearing; _Pilgrim's Progress_, Part II. Harte was tutor to Lord Chesterfield's son. See _post_, 1770, in Dr. Maxwell's _Collectanea_, and March 30, 1781.

[474] 'Johnson has told me that whole nights have been spent by him and Savage in a perambulation round the squares of Westminster, St. James's in particular, when all the money they could both raise was less than sufficient to purchase for them the shelter and sordid comforts of a night's cellar.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, P. 53. Where was Mrs. Johnson living at this time? This perhaps was the time of which Johnson wrote, when, after telling of a silver cup which his mother had bought him, and marked SAM. I., he says:--'The cup was one of the last pieces of plate which dear Tetty sold in our distress.' _Account of Johnson's Early Life_, p. 18. Yet it is not easy to understand how, if there was a lodging for her, there was not one for him. She might have been living with friends. We have a statement by Hawkins (p. 89) that there was 'a temporary separation of Johnson from his wife.' He adds that, 'while he was in a lodging in Fleet Street, she was harboured by a friend near the Tower.' This separation, he insinuates, rose by an estrangement caused by Johnson's 'indifference in the discharge of the domestic virtues.' It is far more likely that it rose from destitution.

Shenstone, in a letter written in 1743, gives a curious account of the streets of London through which Johnson wandered. He says;--'London is really dangerous at this time; the pickpockets, formerly content with mere filching, make no scruple to knock people down with bludgeons in Fleet Street and the Strand, and that at no later hour than eight o'clock at night; but in the Piazzas, Covent Garden, they come in large bodies, armed with _couteaus_, and attack whole parties, so that the danger of coming out of the play-houses is of some weight in the opposite scale, when I am disposed to go to them oftener than I ought.' Shenstone's _Works_ (edit.), iii. 73.

[475] 'Savage lodged as much by accident as he dined, and passed the night sometimes in mean houses, ... and sometimes, when he had not money to support even the expenses of these receptacles, walked about the streets till he was weary, and lay down in the summer upon a bulk, or in the winter, with his associates in poverty, among the ashes of a glass-house. In this manner were passed those days and those nights which nature had enabled him to have employed in elevated speculations, useful studies, or pleasing conversation.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 159.

[476] See _ante_, p. 94.

[477] Cave was the purchaser of the copyright, and the following is a copy of Johnson's receipt for the money:--'The 14th day of December, received of Mr. Ed. Cave the sum of fifteen guineas, in full, for compiling and writing _The Life of Richard Savage, Esq_., deceased; and in full for all materials thereto applied, and not found by the said Edward Cave. I say, received by me, SAM. JOHNSON. Dec. 14, 1743.' WRIGHT. The title-page is as follows:--'An account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage, son of the Earl Rivers. London. Printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick-Lane. MDCCXLIV. It reached a second edition in 1748, a third in 1767, and a fourth in 1769. A French translation was published in 1771.

[478] Roberts published in 1745 Johnson's _Observations on Macbeth_. See _Gent. Mag_. xv. 112, 224.

[479] Horace, _Ars Poetica_ l. 317.

[480] In the autumn of 1752. Northcote's _Reynolds_ i. 52

[481] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd ed. p. 35 [p. 55. Aug. 19, 1773]. BOSWELL.

[482] 'mint _of_ ecstasy:' Savage's _Works_ (1777), ii. 91.

[483] 'He lives to build, not boast a generous race: No tenth transmitter of a foolish face.' _Ib_.

[484] '_The Bastard_: A poem, inscribed with all due reverence to Mrs. Bret, once Countess of Macclesfield. By Richard Savage, son of the late Earl Rivers. London, printed for T. Worrall, 1728.' Fol. first edition. P. CUNNINGHAM. Between Savage's character, as drawn by Johnson, and Johnson himself there are many points of likeness. Each 'always preserved a steady confidence in his own capacity,' and of each it might be said:--'Whatever faults may be imputed to him, the virtue of suffering well cannot be denied him.' Each 'excelled in the arts of conversation and therefore willingly practised them.' In Savage's refusal to enter a house till some clothes had been taken away that had been left for him 'with some neglect of ceremonies,' we have the counterpart of Johnson's throwing away the new pair of shoes that had been set at his door. Of Johnson the following lines are as true as of Savage:--'His distresses, however afflictive, never dejected him; in his lowest state he wanted not spirit to assert the natural dignity of wit, and was always ready to repress that insolence which the superiority of fortune incited; ... he never admitted any gross familiarities, or submitted to be treated otherwise than as an equal.' Of both men it might be said that 'it was in no time of his life any part of his character to be the first of the company that desired to separate.' Each 'would prolong his conversation till midnight, without considering that business might require his friend's application in the morning;' and each could plead the same excuse that, 'when he left his company, he was abandoned to gloomy reflections.' Each had the same 'accurate judgment,' the same 'quick apprehension,' the same 'tenacious memory.' In reading such lines as the following who does not think, not of the man whose biography was written, but of the biographer himself?--'He had the peculiar felicity that his attention never deserted him; he was present to every object, and regardful of the most trifling occurrences ... To this quality is to be imputed the extent of his knowledge, compared with the small time which he spent in visible endeavours to acquire it. He mingled in cursory conversation with the same steadiness of attention as others apply to a lecture.... His judgment was eminently exact both with regard to writings and to men. The knowledge of life was indeed his chief attainment.' Of Johnson's _London_, as of Savage's _The Wanderer_, it might equally well be said:--'Nor can it without some degree of indignation and concern be told that he sold the copy for ten guineas.'

[485] 'Savage was now again abandoned to fortune without any other friend than Mr. Wilks; a man who, whatever were his abilities or skill as an actor, deserves at least to be remembered for his virtues, which are not often to be found in the world, and perhaps less often in his profession than in others. To be humane, generous, and candid is a very high degree of merit in any case, but those qualities deserve still greater praise when they are found in that condition which makes almost every other man, for whatever reason, contemptuous, insolent, petulant, selfish, and brutal.' _Johnson's Works_, viii. 107.

[486] In his old age he wrote as he had written in the vigour of his manhood:--'To the censure of Collier ... he [Dryden] makes little reply; being at the age of sixty-eight attentive to better things than the claps of a play-house.' Johnson's _Works_ vii. 295. See _post_, April 29, 1773, and Sept. 21, 1777.

[487] Johnson, writing of the latter half of the seventeenth century, says:--'The playhouse was abhorred by the Puritans, and avoided by those who desired the character of seriousness or decency. A grave lawyer would have debased his dignity, and a young trader would have impaired his credit, by appearing in those mansions of dissolute licentiousness.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 270. The following lines in Churchill's _Apology_ (_Poems_, i. 65), published in 1761, shew how strong, even at that time, was the feeling against strolling players:--

'The strolling tribe, a despicable race, Like wand'ring Arabs shift from place to place. Vagrants by law, to Justice open laid, They tremble, of the beadle's lash afraid, And fawning cringe, for wretched means of life, To Madam May'ress, or his Worship's Wife.'

[488] Johnson himself recognises the change in the public estimation:--'In Dryden's time,' he writes, 'the drama was very far from that universal approbation which it has now obtained.' _Works_, vii. 270.

[489] Giffard was the manager of the theatre in Goodman's Fields, where Garrick, on Oct. 19, 1741, made his first appearance before a London audience. Murphy's _Garrick_, pp. 13, 16.

[490] 'Colonel Pennington said, Garrick sometimes failed in emphasis; as, for instance, in Hamlet,

"I will speak _daggers_ to her; but use _none_;"

instead of

"I will _speak_ daggers to her; but _use_ none."'

Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 28, 1773.

[491] I suspect Dr. Taylor was inaccurate in this statement. The emphasis should be equally upon _shalt_ and _not_, as both concur to form the negative injunction; and _false witness_, like the other acts prohibited in the Decalogue, should not be marked by any peculiar emphasis, but only be distinctly enunciated. BOSWELL.

[492] This character of the _Life of Savage_ was not written by Fielding as has been supposed, but most probably by Ralph, who, as appears from the minutes of the partners of _The Champion_, in the possession of Mr. Reed of Staple Inn, succeeded Fielding in his share of the paper, before the date of that eulogium. BOSWELL. Ralph is mentioned in _The Dunciad_, iii. 165. A curious account of him is given in Benjamin Franklin's _Memoirs_, i. 54-87 and 245.

[493] The late Francis Cockayne Cust, Esq., one of his Majesty's Counsel. BOSWELL.

[494] Savage's veracity was questioned, but with little reason; his accounts, though not indeed always the same, were generally consistent. 'When he loved any man, he suppressed all his faults: and, when he had been offended by him, concealed all his virtues: but his characters were generally true so far as he proceeded; though it cannot be denied that his partiality might have sometimes the effect of falsehood.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 190.

[495] 1697. BOSWELL.

[496] Johnson's _Works_, viii. 98.

[497] The story on which Mr. Cust so much relies, that Savage was a supposititious child, not the son of Lord Rivers and Lady Macclesfield, but the offspring of a shoemaker, introduced in consequence of her real son's death, was, without doubt, grounded on the circumstance of Lady Macclesfield having, in 1696, previously to the birth of Savage, had a daughter by the Earl Rivers, who died in her infancy; a fact which was proved in the course of the proceedings on Lord Macclesfield's Bill of Divorce. Most fictions of this kind have some admixture of truth in them. MALONE. From _The Earl of Macclesfield's Case_, it appears that 'Anne, Countess of Macclesfield, under the name of Madam Smith, in Fox Court, near Brook Street, Holborn, was delivered of a male child on the 16th of January, 1696-7, who was baptized on the Monday following, the 18th, and registered by the name of Richard, the son of John Smith, by Mr. Burbridge; and, from the privacy, was supposed by Mr. Burbridge to be "a by-blow or bastard."' It also appears, that during her delivery, the lady wore a mask; and that Mary Pegler, on the next day after the baptism, took a male child, whose mother was called Madam Smith, from the house of Mrs. Pheasant, in Fox Court [running from Brook Street in Gray's Inn Lane], who went by the name of Mrs. Lee.

Conformable to this statement is the entry in the register of St. Andrew's, Holborn, which is as follows, and which unquestionably records the baptism of Richard Savage, to whom Lord Rivers gave his own Christian name, prefixed to the assumed surname of his mother:--'Jan. 1696-7. Richard, son of John Smith and Mary, in Fox Court, in Gray's Inn Lane, baptized the 18th.' BINDLEY. According to Johnson's account Savage did not learn who his parents were till the death of his nurse, who had always treated him as her son. Among her papers he found some letters written by Lady Macclesfield's mother proving his origin. Johnson's _Works_, viii. 102. Why these letters were not laid before the public is not stated. Johnson was one of the least credulous of men, and he was convinced by Savage's story. Horace Walpole, too, does not seem to have doubted it. Walpole's _Letters_, i. cv.

[498] Johnson's _Works_, viii. 97.

[499] _Ib_. p. 142.

[500] Johnson's _Works_, p. 101.

[501] According to Johnson's account (Johnson's _Works_, viii. 102), the shoemaker under whom Savage was placed on trial as an apprentice was not the husband of his nurse.

[502] He was in his tenth year when she died. 'He had none to prosecute his claim, to shelter him from oppression, or call in law to the assistance of justice.' _Ib_. p. 99.

[503] Johnson's companion appears to have persuaded that lofty-minded man, that he resembled him in having a noble pride; for Johnson, after painting in strong colours the quarrel between Lord Tyrconnel and Savage, asserts that 'the spirit of Mr. Savage, indeed, never suffered him to solicit a reconciliation: he returned reproach for reproach, and insult for insult.' [_Ib_. p. 141.] But the respectable gentleman to whom I have alluded, has in his possession a letter, from Savage, after Lord Tyrconnel had discarded him, addressed to the Reverend Mr. Gilbert, his Lordship's Chaplain, in which he requests him, in the humblest manner, to represent his case to the Viscount. BOSWELL.

[504] 'How loved, how honoured once avails thee not, To whom related, or by whom begot.'

POPE'S _Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady_.

[505] Trusting to Savage's information, Johnson represents this unhappy man's being received as a companion by Lord Tyrconnel, and pensioned by his Lordship, as if posteriour to Savage's conviction and pardon. But I am assured, that Savage had received the voluntary bounty of Lord Tyrconnel, and had been dismissed by him, long before the murder was committed, and that his Lordship was very instrumental in procuring Savage's pardon, by his intercession with the Queen, through Lady Hertford. If, therefore, he had been desirous of preventing the publication by Savage, he would have left him to his fate. Indeed I must observe, that although Johnson mentions that Lord Tyrconnel's patronage of Savage was 'upon his promise to lay aside his design of exposing the cruelty of his mother,' [Johnson's _Works_, viii. 124], the great biographer has forgotten that he himself has mentioned, that Savage's story had been told several years before in _The Plain Dealer_; from which he quotes this strong saying of the generous Sir Richard Steele, that 'the inhumanity of his mother had given him a right to find every good man his father.' [_Ib_. p. 104.] At the same time it must be acknowledged, that Lady Macclesfield and her relations might still wish that her story should not be brought into more conspicuous notice by the satirical pen of Savage. BOSWELL.

[506] According to Johnson, she was at Bath when Savage's poem of _The Bastard_ was published. 'She could not,' he wrote, 'enter the assembly-rooms or cross the walks without being saluted with some lines from _The Bastard_. This was perhaps the first time that she ever discovered a sense of shame, and on this occasion the power of wit was very conspicuous; the wretch who had without scruple proclaimed herself an adulteress, and who had first endeavoured to starve her son, then to transport him, and afterwards to hang him, was not able to bear the representation of her own conduct; but fled from reproach, though she felt no pain from guilt, and left Bath with the utmost haste to shelter herself among the crowds of London.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 141.

[507] Miss Mason, after having forfeited the title of Lady Macclesfield by divorce, was married to Colonel Brett, and, it is said, was well known in all the polite circles. Colley Cibber, I am informed, had so high an opinion of her taste and judgement as to genteel life, and manners, that he submitted every scene of his _Careless Husband_ to Mrs. Brett's revisal and correction. Colonel Brett was reported to be too free in his gallantry with his Lady's maid. Mrs. Brett came into a room one day in her own house, and found the Colonel and her maid both fast asleep in two chairs. She tied a white handkerchief round her husband's neck, which was a sufficient proof that she had discovered his intrigue; but she never at any time took notice of it to him. This incident, as I am told, gave occasion to the well-wrought scene of Sir Charles and Lady Easy and Edging. BOSWELL. Lady Macclesfield died 1753, aged above 80. Her eldest daughter, by Col. Brett, was, for the few last months of his life, the mistress of George I, (Walpole's _Reminiscences_, cv.) Her marriage ten years after her royal lover's death is thus announced in the _Gent. Mag_., 1737:--'Sept. 17. Sir W. Leman, of Northall, Bart., to Miss Brett [Britt] of Bond Street, an heiress;' and again next month--'Oct. 8. Sir William Leman, of Northall, Baronet, to Miss Brett, half sister to Mr. Savage, son to the late Earl Rivers;' for the difference of date I know not how to account; but the second insertion was, no doubt, made by Savage to countenance his own pretensions. CROKER.

[508] 'Among the names of subscribers to the _Harleian Miscellany_ there occurs that of "Sarah Johnson, bookseller in Lichfield."' _Johnsoniana_, p. 466.

[509] A brief account of Oldys is given in the _Gent. Mag_. liv. 161, 260. Like so many of his fellows he was thrown into the Fleet. 'After poor Oldys's release, such was his affection for the place that he constantly spent his evenings there.'

[510] In the Feb. number of the _Gent. Mag_. for this year (p. 112) is the following advertisement:--'Speedily will be published (price 1s.) _Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth_, with remarks on Sir T.H.'s edition of _Shakespear_; to which is affix'd proposals for a new edition of _Shakespear_, with a specimen. Printed for J. Roberts in Warwick Lane.' In the March number (p. 114), under the date of March 31, it is announced that it will be published on April 6. In spite of the two advertisements, and the title-page which agrees with the advertisements, I believe that the Proposals were not published till eleven years later (see _post_, end of 1756). I cannot hear of any copy of the _Miscellaneous Observations_ which contains them. The advertisement is a third time repeated in the April number of the _Gent. Mag_. for 1745 (p. 224), but the Proposals are not this time mentioned. Tom Davies the bookseller gives 1756 as the date of their publication (_Misc. and Fugitive Pieces_, ii. 87). Perhaps Johnson or the booksellers were discouraged by Hanmer's _Shakespeare_ as well as by Warburton's. Johnson at the end of the _Miscellaneous Observations_ says:--'After the foregoing pages were printed, the late edition of _Shakespeare_ ascribed to Sir T. H. fell into my hands.'

[511] 'The excellence of the edition proved to be by no means proportionate to the arrogance of the editor.' _Cambridge Shakespeare_, i. xxxiv.

[512] 'When you see Mr. Johnson pray [give] my compliments, and tell him I esteem him as a great genius--quite lost both to himself and the world.' _Gilbert Walmesley to Garrick_, Nov. 3, 1746. _Garrick Correspondence_, i. 45. Mr. Walmesley's letter does not shew that Johnson was idle. The old man had expected great things from him. 'I have great hopes,' he had written in 1737 (see _ante_, p. 102), 'that he will turn out a fine tragedy writer.' In the nine years in which Johnson had been in town he had done, no doubt, much admirable work; but by his poem of _London_ only was he known to the public. His _Life of Savage_ did not bear his name. His _Observations on Macbeth_ were published in April, 1745; his _Plan of the Dictionary_ in 1747 [Transcriber's note: Originally 1774, corrected in Errata.]. What was Johnson doing meanwhile? Boswell conjectures that he was engaged on his _Shakespeare_ and his _Dictionary_. That he went on working at his _Shakespeare_ when the prospect of publishing was so remote that he could not issue his proposals is very unlikely. That he had been for some time engaged on his _Dictionary_ before he addressed Lord Chesterfield is shewn by the opening sentences of the _Plan_. Mr. Croker's conjecture that he was absent or concealed on account of some difficulties which had arisen through the rebellion of 1745 is absurd. At no time of his life had he been an ardent Jacobite. 'I have heard him declare,' writes Boswell, 'that if holding up his right hand would have secured victory at Culloden to Prince Charles's army, he was not sure he would have held it up;' _post_, July 14, 1763. 'He had never in his life been in a nonjuring meeting-house;' _post_, June 9, 1784.

For the fact that he wrote very little, if indeed anything, in the _Gent. Mag_. during these years more than one reason may be given. In the first place, public affairs take up an unusual amount of room in its columns. Thus in the number for Dec. 1745 we read:--'Our readers being too much alarmed by the present rebellion to relish with their usual delight the _Debates in the Senate of Lilliput_ we shall postpone them for a season, that we may be able to furnish out a fuller entertainment of what we find to be more suitable to their present taste.' In the Preface it is stated:--'We have sold more of our books than we desire for several months past, and are heartily sorry for the occasion of it, the present troubles.' During these years then much less space was given to literature. But besides this, Johnson likely enough refused to write for the _Magazine_ when it shewed itself strongly Hanoverian. He would highly disapprove of _A New Protestant Litany_, which was written after the following fashion:--

'May Spaniards, or French, all who join with a Highland, In disturbing the peace of this our bless'd island, Meet tempests on sea and halters on dry land. We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.'

_Gent. Mag_. xv. 551.

He would be disgusted the following year at seeing the Duke of Cumberland praised as 'the greatest man alive' (_Gent. Mag_. xvi. 235), and sung in verse that would have almost disgraced Cibber (p. 36). It is remarkable that there is no mention of Johnson's _Plan of a Dictionary_ in the _Magazine_. Perhaps some coolness had risen between him and Cave.

[513] Boswell proceeds to mention six.

[514] In Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in which this paraphrase is inserted, it is stated that the Latin epitaph was written by Dr. Freind. I do not think that the English version is by Johnson. I should be sorry to ascribe to him such lines as:--

'Illustrious age! how bright thy glories shone, When Hanmer filled the chair--and Anne the throne.'

[515] In the _Observations_, Johnson, writing of Hanmer, says:--'Surely the weapons of criticism ought not to be blunted against an editor who can imagine that he is restoring poetry while he is amusing himself with alterations like these:--

For,--This is the sergeant Who like a good and hardy soldier fought; --This is the sergeant who Like a _right_ good and hardy soldier fought.

Such harmless industry may surely be forgiven, if it cannot be praised; may he therefore never want a monosyllable who can use it with such wonderful dexterity.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 93. In his Preface to _Shakespeare_ published eighteen years later, he describes Hanmer as 'A man, in my opinion, eminently qualified by nature for such studies.' _Ib_. p. 139. The editors of the _Cambridge Shakespeare_ (i. xxxii) thus write of Hanmer:--

'A country gentleman of great ingenuity and lively fancy, but with no knowledge of older literature, no taste for research, and no ear for the rhythm of earlier English verse, amused his leisure hours by scribbling down his own and his friend's guesses in Pope's _Shakespeare_.'

[516] In the _Universal Visiter_, to which Johnson contributed, the mark which is affixed to some pieces unquestionably his, is also found subjoined to others, of which he certainly was not the author. The mark therefore will not ascertain the poems in question to have been written by him. They were probably the productions of Hawkesworth, who, it is believed, was afflicted with the gout. MALONE.

It is most unlikely that Johnson wrote such poor poems as these. I shall not easily be persuaded that the following lines are his:--

'Love warbles in the vocal groves, And vegetation paints the plain.'

'And love and hate alike implore The skies--"That Stella mourn no more."'

'The Winter's Walk' has two good lines, but these may have been supplied by Johnson. The lines to 'Lyce, an elderly Lady,' would, if written by him, have been taken as a satire on his wife.

[517] See _post_ under Sept. 18, 1783.

[518] See Johnson's _Works_, vii. 4, 34.

[519] Boswell italicises _conceits_ to shew that he is using it in the sense in which Johnson uses it in his criticism of Cowley:--'These conceits Addison calls mixed wit; that is, wit which consists of thoughts true in one sense of the expression and false in the other.' _Ib_. vii 35.

[520] _Namby Pamby_ was the name given to Ambrose Philips by Pope _Ib_.