Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 by Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

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1763, May 16 to Aug. 6, London.
1766, a few days in February "
1768, " " March, Oxford.
1768, a few days in May, London.
1769, end of Sept. to Nov. 10, "
1772, March 21 to about May 10, "
1773, April 3 to May 10, "
" Aug. 14 to Nov. 22, Scotland.
1775, March 21 to April 18, London.
May 2 to May 23, "
1776, March 15 to May 16, London, Oxford, Birmingham,
with an interval of Lichfield,
about a fortnight, Ashbourne,
when Johnson was at and
Bath and Boswell at Bath.
London,
1777, Sept. 14 to Sept. 24, Ashbourne.
1778, March 18 to May 19, London.
1779, March 15 to May 3, "
" Oct. 4 to Oct. 18, "
1781, March 19 to June 5, London
and Southill.
1783, March 21 to May 30, London.
1784, May 5 to June 30, London
and Oxford.

[74]

'To shew what wisdom and what sense can do,
The poet sets Ulysses in our view.'

_Francis_. Horace, _Ep_. i. 2. 17.

[75] In his _Letter to the People of Scotland, p. 92, he wrote:--'Allow
me, my friends and countrymen, while I with honest zeal maintain _your_
cause--allow me to indulge a little more my _own egotism_ and _vanity_.
They are the indigenous plants of my mind; they distinguish it. I may
prune their luxuriancy; but I must not entirely clear it of them; for
then I should be no longer "as I am;" and perhaps there might be
something not so good.'

[76] See _post_, April 17, 1778, note.

[77] Lord Macartney was the first English ambassador to the Court of
Pekin. He left England in 1792 and returned in 1794.

[78] Boswell writing to Temple ten days earlier had said:--'Behold my
_hand_! the robbery is only of a few shillings; but the cut on my head
and bruises on my arms were sad things, and confined me to bed, in pain,
and fever, and helplessness, as a child, many days.... This shall be a
crisis in my life: I trust I shall henceforth be a sober regular man.
Indeed, my indulgence in wine has, of late years especially, been
excessive.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 346.

[79] On this day his brother wrote to Mr. Temple: 'I have now the
painful task of informing you that my dear brother expired this morning
at two o'clock; we have both lost a kind, affectionate friend, and I
shall never have such another.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 357. What was
probably Boswell's last letter is as follows:--

'My Dear Temple,

'I would fain write to you in my own hand, but really cannot. [These
words, which are hardly legible, and probably the last poor Boswell ever
wrote, afford the clearest evidence of his utter physical prostration.]
Alas, my friend, what a state is this! My son James is to write for me
what remains of this letter, and I am to dictate. The pain which
continued for so many weeks was very severe indeed, and when it went off
I thought myself quite well; but I soon felt a conviction that I was by
no means as I should be--so exceedingly weak, as my miserable attempt to
write to you afforded a full proof. All then that can be said is, that I
must wait with patience. But, O my friend! how strange is it that, at
this very time of my illness, you and Miss Temple should have been in
such a dangerous state. Much occasion for thankfulness is there that it
has not been worse with you. Pray write, or make somebody write
frequently. I feel myself a good deal stronger to-day, not withstanding
the scrawl. God bless you, my dear Temple! I ever am your old and
affectionate friend, here and I trust hereafter,

'JAMES BOSWELL.' _Ib_. p. 353.

[80] Malone died on May 25, 1812.

[81] I do not here include his Poetical Works; for, excepting his Latin
Translation of Pope's _Messiah_, his _London_, and his _Vanity of Human
Wishes_ imitated from _Juvenal_; his Prologue on the opening of
Drury-Lane Theatre by Mr. Garrick, and his _Irene_, a Tragedy, they are
very numerous, and in general short; and I have promised a complete
edition of them, in which I shall with the utmost care ascertain their
authenticity, and illustrate them with notes and various readings.
BOSWELL. Boswell's meaning, though not well expressed, is clear enough.
Mr. Croker needlessly suggests that he wrote 'they are _not_ very
numerous.' Boswell a second time (_post_, under Aug. 12, 1784, note)
mentions his intention to edit Johnson's poems. He died without doing
it. See also _post_, 1750, Boswell's note on Addison's style.

[82] The _Female Quixote_ was published in 1752. See _post_, 1762, note.

[83] The first four volumes of the _Lives_ were published in 1779, the
last six in 1781.

[84] See Dr. Johnson's letter to Mrs. Thrale, dated Ostick in Skie,
September 30, 1773:--'Boswell writes a regular Journal of our travels,
which I think contains as much of what I say and do, as of all other
occurrences together; "_for such a faithful chronicler_ is _Griffith_."'
BOSWELL. See _Piozzi Letters_, i. 159, where however we read '_as_
Griffith.'

[85] _Idler_, No. 84. BOSWELL.--In this paper he says: 'Those relations
are commonly of most value in which the writer tells his own story. He
that recounts the life of another ... lessens the familiarity of his
tale to increase its dignity ... and endeavours to hide the man that he
may produce a hero.'

[86] 'It very seldom happens to man that his business is his pleasure.
What is done from necessity is so often to be done when against the
present inclination, and so often fills the mind with anxiety, that an
habitual dislike steals upon us, and we shrink involuntarily from the
remembrance of our task.... From this unwillingness to perform more than
is required of that which is commonly performed with reluctance it
proceeds that few authors write their own lives.' _Idler_, No. 102. See
also _post_, May 1, 1783.

[87] Mrs. Piozzi records the following conversation with Johnson, which,
she says, took place on July 18, 1773. 'And who will be my biographer,'
said he, 'do you think?' 'Goldsmith, no doubt,' replied I; 'and he will
do it the best among us.' 'The dog would write it best to be sure,'
replied he; 'but his particular malice towards me, and general disregard
for truth, would make the book useless to all, and injurious to my
character.' 'Oh! as to that,' said I, 'we should all fasten upon him,
and force him to do you justice; but the worst is, the Doctor does not
_know_ your life; nor can I tell indeed who does, except Dr. Taylor of
Ashbourne.' 'Why Taylor,' said he, 'is better acquainted with my _heart_
than any man or woman now alive; and the history of my Oxford exploits
lies all between him and Adams; but Dr. James knows my very early days
better than he. After my coming to London to drive the world about a
little, you must all go to Jack Hawkesworth for anecdotes: I lived in
great familiarity with him (though I think there was not much affection)
from the year 1753 till the time Mr. Thrale and you took me up. I
intend, however, to disappoint the rogues, and either make you write the
life, with Taylor's intelligence; or, which is better, do it myself
after outliving you all. I am now,' added he, 'keeping a diary, in hopes
of using it for that purpose sometime.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 31. How much
of this is true cannot be known. Boswell some time before this
conversation had told Johnson that he intended to write his Life, and
Johnson had given him many particulars (see _post_, March 31, 1772, and
April 11, 1773). He read moreover in manuscript most of Boswell's _Tour
to the Hebrides_, and from it learnt of his intention. 'It is no small
satisfaction to me to reflect,' Boswell wrote, 'that Dr. Johnson, after
being apprised of my intentions, communicated to me, at subsequent
periods, many particulars of his life.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct.
14, 1773.

[88] 'It may be said the death of Dr. Johnson kept the public mind in
agitation beyond all former example. No literary character ever excited
so much attention.' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 3.

[89] The greatest part of this book was written while Sir John Hawkins
was alive; and I avow, that one object of my strictures was to make him
feel some compunction for his illiberal treatment of Dr. Johnson. Since
his decease, I have suppressed several of my remarks upon his work. But
though I would not 'war with the dead' _offensively_, I think it
necessary to be strenuous in _defence_ of my illustrious friend, which I
cannot be without strong animadversions upon a writer who has greatly
injured him. Let me add, that though I doubt I should not have been very
prompt to gratify Sir John Hawkins with any compliment in his life-time,
I do now frankly acknowledge, that, in my opinion, his volume, however
inadequate and improper as a life of Dr. Johnson, and however
discredited by unpardonable inaccuracies in other respects, contains a
collection of curious anecdotes and observations, which few men but its
author could have brought together. BOSWELL.

[90] 'The next name that was started was that of Sir John Hawkins; and
Mrs. Thrale said, "Why now, Dr. Johnson, he is another of those whom you
suffer nobody to abuse but yourself: Garrick is one too; for, if any
other person speaks against him, you brow-beat him in a minute." "Why
madam," answered he, "they don't know when to abuse him, and when to
praise him; I will allow no man to speak ill of David that he does not
deserve; and as to Sir John, why really I believe him to be an honest
man at the bottom; but to be sure he is penurious, and he is mean, and
it must be owned he has a degree of brutality, and a tendency to
savageness, that cannot easily be defended.... He said that Sir John and
he once belonged to the same club, but that as he eat no supper, after,
the first night of his admission he desired to be excused paying his
share." "And was he excused?" "O yes; for no man is angry at another for
being inferior to himself. We all scorned him, and admitted his plea.
For my part, I was such a fool as to pay my share for wine, though I
never tasted any. But Sir John was a most _unclubable man_."' Madame
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 65.

[91] 'In censuring Mr. [_sic_] J. Hawkins's book I say: "There is
throughout the whole of it a dark, uncharitable cast, which puts the
most unfavourable construction on my illustrious friend's conduct."
Malone maintains _cast_ will not do; he will have "malignancy." Is that
not too strong? How would "disposition" do?... Hawkins is no doubt very
malevolent. _Observe how he talks of me as quite unknown.' Letters of
Boswell_, p. 281. Malone wrote of Hawkins as follows: 'The bishop
[Bishop Percy of Dromore] concurred with every other person I have heard
speak of Hawkins, in saying that he was a most detestable fellow. He was
the son of a carpenter, and set out in life in the very lowest line of
the law. Dyer knew him well at one time, and the Bishop heard him give a
character of Hawkins once that painted him in the blackest colours;
though Dyer was by no means apt to deal in such portraits. Dyer said he
was a man of the most mischievous, uncharitable, and malignant
disposition. Sir Joshua Reynolds observed to me that Hawkins, though he
assumed great outward sanctity, was not only mean and grovelling in
dispostion, but absolutely dishonest. He never lived in any real
intimacy with Dr. Johnson, who never opened his heart to him, or had in
fact any accurate knowledge of his character.' Prior's _Malone_, pp.
425-7. See _post_, Feb. 1764, note.

[92] Mrs. Piozzi. See _post_, under June 30, 1784.

[93] Voltaire in his account of Bayle says: 'Des Maizeaux a ecrit sa vie
en un gros volume; elle ne devait pas contenir six pages.' Voltaire's
_Works_, edition of 1819, xvii. 47.

[94] Brit. Mus. 4320, Ayscough's Catal., Sloane MSS. BOSWELL.--Horace
Walpole describes Birch as 'a worthy, good-natured soul, full of
industry and activity, and running about like a young setting-dog in
quest of anything, new or old, and with no parts, taste, or judgment.'
Walpole's _Letters_, vii. 326. See _post_, Sept. 1743.

[95] 'You have fixed the method of biography, and whoever will write a
life well must imitate you.' Horace Walpole to Mason; Walpole's
_Letters_, vi. 211.

[96] 'I am absolutely certain that my mode of biography, which gives not
only a _History_ of Johnson's _visible_ progress through the world, and
of his publications, but a _view_ of his mind in his letters and
conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived, and will be
more of a Life than any work that has ever yet appeared.' _Letters of
Boswell_, p. 265.

[97] Pope's Prologue to Addison's _Cato_, 1. 4.

[98] 'Boswell is the first of biographers. He has distanced all his
competitors so decidedly that it is not worth while to place them.
Eclipse is first, and the rest nowhere.' Macaulay's _Essays_, i. 374.

[99] See _post_, Sept. 17, 1777, and Malone's note of March 15, 1781,
and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22, 1773. Hannah More met Boswell when
he was carrying through the press his _Journal of a Tour to the
Hebrides_. 'Boswell tells me,' she writes, 'he is printing anecdotes of
Johnson, not his _Life_, but, as he has the vanity to call it, his
_pyramid_. I besought his tenderness for our virtuous and most revered
departed friend, and begged he would mitigate some of his asperities. He
said roughly: "He would not cut off his claws, nor make a tiger a cat,
to please anybody." It will, I doubt not, be a very amusing book, but, I
hope, not an indiscreet one; he has great enthusiasm and some fire.' H.
More's _Memoirs_, i. 403.

[100] Rambler, No. 60. BOSWELL.

[101] In the _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_.

[102] 'Mason's _Life of Gray_ is excellent, because it is interspersed
with letters which show us the _man_. His _Life of Whitehead_ is not a
life at all, for there is neither a letter nor a saying from first to
last.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 265.

[103] The Earl and Countess of Jersey, WRIGHT.

[104] Plutarch's _Life of Alexander_, Langhorne's Translation. BOSWELL.

[105] In the original, _revolving something_.

[106] In the original, _and so little regard the manners_.

[107] In the original, _and are rarely transmitted_.

[108] _Rambler_, No. 60. BOSWELL.

[109] Bacon's _Advancement of Learning_, Book I. BOSWELL.

[110] Johnson's godfather, Dr. Samuel Swinfen, according to the author
of _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr. Johnson_, 1785, p. 10, was
at the time of his birth lodging with Michael Johnson. Johnson had
uncles on the mother's side, named Samuel and Nathanael (see _Notes and
Queries_, 5th S. v. 13), after whom he and his brother may have been
named. It seems more likely that it was his godfather who gave him
his name.

[111] So early as 1709 _The Tatler_ complains of this 'indiscriminate
assumption.' 'I'll undertake that if you read the superscriptions to all
the offices in the kingdom, you will not find three letters directed to
any but Esquires.... In a word it is now _Populus Armigerorum_, a people
of Esquires, And I don't know but by the late act of naturalisation,
foreigners will assume that title as part of the immunity of being
Englishmen.' _The Tatler_, No. 19.

[112] 'I can hardly tell who was my grandfather,' said Johnson. See
_post_, May 9, 1773.

[113] Michael Johnson was born in 1656. He must have been engaged in the
book-trade as early as 1681; for in the _Life of Dryden_ his son says,
'The sale of Absalom and Achitophel was so large, that my father, an old
bookseller, told me, he had not known it equalled but by Sacheverell's
Trial.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 276. In the _Life of Sprat_ he is
described by his son as 'an old man who had been no careless observer of
the passages of those times.' Ib. 392.

[114] Her epitaph says that she was born at Kingsnorton. Kingsnorton is
in Worcestershire, and not, as the epitaph says, 'in agro Varvicensi.'
When Johnson a few days before his death burnt his papers, some
fragments of his _Annals_ escaped the flames. One of these was never
seen by Boswell; it was published in 1805 under the title of _An Account
of the Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, from his Birth to his Eleventh Year,
written by himself_. In this he says (p. 14), 'My mother had no value
for my father's relations; those indeed whom we knew of were much lower
than hers.' Writing to Mrs. Thrale on his way to Scotland he said: 'We
changed our horses at Darlington, where Mr. Cornelius Harrison, a
cousin-german of mine, was perpetual curate. He was the only one of my
relations who ever rose in fortune above penury, or in character above
neglect.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 105. His uncle Harrison he described as
'a very mean and vulgar man, drunk every night, but drunk with little
drink, very peevish, very proud, very ostentatious, but luckily not
rich.' _Annals_, p. 28. In _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. x. 465, is given
the following extract of the marriage of Johnson's parents from the
Register of Packwood in Warwickshire:--

'1706. Mickell Johnsones of lichfield and Sara ford maried June the
9th.'

[115] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 3) records that Johnson told her that 'his
father was wrong-headed, positive, and afflicted with melancholy.'

[116] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 213 [Sept. 16].
BOSWELL.

[117] Stockdale in his _Memoirs_, ii. 102, records an anecdote told him
by Johnson of 'the generosity of one of the customers of his father.
"This man was purchasing a book, and pressed my father to let him have
it at a far less price than it was worth. When his other topics of
persuasion failed, he had recourse to one argument which, he thought,
would infallibly prevail:--You know, Mr. Johnson, that I buy an almanac
of you every year."'

[118] Extract of a letter, dated 'Trentham, St. Peter's day, 1716,'
written by the Rev. George Plaxton, Chaplain at that time to Lord Gower,
which may serve to show the high estimation in which the Father of our
great Moralist was held: 'Johnson, the Litchfield Librarian, is now
here; he propagates learning all over this diocese, and advanceth
knowledge to its just height; all the Clergy here are his Pupils, and
suck all they have from him; Allen cannot make a warrant without his
precedent, nor our quondam John Evans draw a recognizance _sine
directione Michaelis_.' _Gentleman's Magazine_, October, 1791. BOSWELL.

[119] In _Notes and Queries_, 3rd S. v. 33, is given the following
title-page of one of his books: '[Greek: Pharmako-Basauos]: _or the
Touchstone of Medicines, etc_. By Sir John Floyer of the City of
Litchfield, Kt., M.D., of Queen's College, Oxford. London: Printed for
Michael Johnson, Bookseller, and are to be sold at his shops at
Litchfield and Uttoxiter, in Staffordshire; and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in
Leicestershire, 1687.'

[120] Johnson writing of his birth says: 'My father being that year
sheriff of Lichfield, and to ride the circuit of the county [Mr. Croker
suggests city, not being aware that 'the City of Lichfield was a county
in itself.' See Harwood's _Lichfield_, p. 1. In like manner, in the
Militia Bill of 1756 (_post_ 1756) we find entered, 'Devonshire with
Exeter City and County,' 'Lincolnshire with Lincoln City and County']
next day, which was a ceremony then performed with great pomp, he was
asked by my mother whom he would invite to the Riding; and answered,
"all the town now." He feasted the citizens with uncommon magnificence,
and was the last but one that maintained the splendour of the Riding.'
_Annals_, p. 10. He served the office of churchwarden in 1688; of
sheriff in 1709; of junior bailiff in 1718; and senior bailiff in 1725.'
Harwood's _Lichfield_, p. 449.

[121] 'My father and mother had not much happiness from each other. They
seldom conversed; for my father could not bear to talk of his affairs,
and my mother being unacquainted with books cared not to talk of
anything else. Had my mother been more literate, they had been better
companions. She might have sometimes introduced her unwelcome topic with
more success, if she could have diversified her conversation. Of
business she had no distinct conception; and therefore her discourse was
composed only of complaint, fear, and suspicion. Neither of them ever
tried to calculate the profits of trade, or the expenses of living. My
mother concluded that we were poor, because we lost by some of our
trades; but the truth was, that my father, having in the early part of
his life contracted debts, never had trade sufficient to enable him to
pay them and maintain his family; he got something, but not enough.'
_Annals_, p. 14. Mr. Croker noticing the violence of Johnson's language
against the Excise, with great acuteness suspected 'some cause of
_personal animosity_;' this mention of the trade in parchment (an
_exciseable_ article) afforded a clue, which has led to the confirmation
of that suspicion. In the records of the Excise Board is to be found the
following letter, addressed to the supervisor of excise at Lichfield:
'July 27, 1725. The Commissioners received yours of the 22nd instant,
and since the justices would not give judgment against Mr. Michael
Johnson, _the tanner_, notwithstanding the facts were fairly against
him, the Board direct that the next time he offends, you do not lay an
information against him, but send an affidavit of the fact, that he may
be prosecuted in the Exchequer.'

[122] See _post_, March 27, 1775.

[123] 'I remember, that being in bed with my mother one morning, I was
told by her of the two places to which the inhabitants of this world
were received after death: one a fine place filled with happiness,
called Heaven; the other, a sad place, called Hell. That this account
much affected my imagination I do not remember.' _Annals_, p. 19.

[124] Johnson's _Works_, vi. 406.

[125] Mr. Croker disbelieves the story altogether. 'Sacheverel,' he
says, 'by his sentence pronounced in Feb. 1710, was interdicted for
three years from preaching; so that he could not have preached at
Lichfield while Johnson was under three years of age. Sacheverel,
indeed, made a triumphal progress through the midland counties in 1710;
and it appears by the books of the corporation of Lichfield that he was
received in that town, and complimented by the attendance of the
corporation, "and a present of three dozen of wine," on June 16, 1710;
but then "the _infant Hercules of Toryism_" was just _nine months_ old.'
It is quite possible that the story is in the main correct. Sacheverel
was received in Lichfield in 1710 on his way down to Shropshire to take
possession of a living. At the end of the suspension in March 1713 he
preached a sermon in London, for which, as he told Swift, 'a book-seller
gave him L100, intending to print 30,000' (Swift's _Journal to Stella_,
April 2, 1713). It is likely enough that either on his way up to town or
on his return journey he preached at Lichfield. In the spring of 1713
Johnson was three years old.

[126] See _post_, p. 48, and April 25,1778 note; and Boswell's
_Hebrides_, Oct. 28, 1773.

[127] _Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson_, by Hester Lynch Piozzi, p. 11. Life of
Dr. Johnson_, by Sir John Hawkins, p. 6. BOSWELL.

[128] 'My father had much vanity which his adversity hindered from being
fully exerted.' _Annals_, p. 14.

[129] This anecdote of the duck, though disproved by internal and
external evidence, has nevertheless, upon supposition of its truth, been
made the foundation of the following ingenious and fanciful reflections
of Miss Seward, amongst the communications concerning Dr. Johnson with
which she has been pleased to favour me: 'These infant numbers contain
the seeds of those propensities which through his life so strongly
marked his character, of that poetick talent which afterwards bore such
rich and plentiful fruits; for, excepting his orthographick works, every
thing which Dr. Johnson wrote was Poetry, whose essence consists not in
numbers, or in jingle, but in the strength and glow of a fancy, to which
all the stores of nature and of art stand in prompt administration; and
in an eloquence which conveys their blended illustrations in a language
"more tuneable than needs or rhyme or verse to add more harmony."

'The above little verses also shew that superstitious bias which "grew
with his growth, and strengthened with his strength," and, of late years
particularly, injured his happiness, by presenting to him the gloomy
side of religion, rather than that bright and cheering one which gilds
the period of closing life with the light of pious hope.'

This is so beautifully imagined, that I would not suppress it. But like
many other theories, it is deduced from a supposed fact, which is,
indeed, a fiction. BOSWELL.

[130] _Prayers and Meditations_, p. 27. BOSWELL.

[131] Speaking himself of the imperfection of one of his eyes, he said
to Dr. Burney, 'the dog was never good for much.' MALONE.

[132] Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 1, 1773.