Chapter 6

alive at this day to testify it; therefore deny it not.'

[162] Horace Walpole says (_Works_, iv. 224) that when he was 'dining at the Royal Academy, Dr. Goldsmith drew the attention of the company with an account of a marvellous treasure of ancient poems lately discovered at Bristol, and expressed enthusiastic belief in them; for which he was laughed at by Dr. Johnson, who was present.... You may imagine we did not at all agree in the measure of our faith; but though his credulity diverted me, my mirth was soon dashed; for, on asking about Chatterton, he told me he had been in London, and had destroyed himself.'

[163] Boswell returned a few days earlier. On May 1 he wrote to Temple: --'Luckily Dr. Taylor has begged of Dr. Johnson to come to London, to assist him in some interesting business; and Johnson loves much to be so consulted, and so comes up. I am now at General Paoli's, quite easy and gay, after my journey; not wearied in body or dissipated in mind. I have lodgings in Gerrard Street, where cards are left to me; but I lie at the General's, whose attention to me is beautiful.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 234. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on May 6:--'Tomorrow I am to dine, as I did yesterday, with Dr. Taylor. On Wednesday I am to dine with Oglethorpe; and on Thursday with Paoli. He that sees before him to his third dinner has a long prospect.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 320.

[164] See _ante_, May 12, 1775.

[165] In the _Dramatis Personæ_ of the play are 'Aimwell and Archer, two gentlemen of broken fortunes, the first as master, and the second as servant.' See _ante_, March 23, 1776, for Garrick's opinion of Johnson's 'taste in theatrical merit.'

[166] Johnson is speaking of the _Respublicæ Elzevirianæ_, either 36 or 62 volumes. 'It depends on every collector what and how much he will admit.' Ebert's _Bibl. Dict_. iii. 1571. See _ante_, ii. 7.

[167] See _post_, under Oct. 20, 1784, for 'the learned pig.'

[168] In the first edition Mme. de Sévigné's name is printed Sevigné, in the second Sevigé, in the third Sevigne. Authors and compositors last century troubled themselves little about French words.

[169] Milton had put the same complaint into Adam's mouth:--

'Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould me man? ... ... As my will Concurred not to my being,' &c.

_Paradise Lost_, x. 743.

[170] See _ante_, April 10, 1775.

[171] Fielding in the _Covent Garden Journal_ for June 2, 1752 (_Works_,