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

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[294] In the original _To teach. Seasons, Spring_, l. 1149, Thomson is
speaking, not of masters, but of parents.

[295] In the _Life of Milton_, Johnson records his own experience.
'Every man that has ever undertaken to instruct others can tell what
slow advances he has been able to make, and how much patience it
requires to recall vagrant inattention, to stimulate sluggish
indifference, and to rectify absurd misapprehension.' Johnson's
_Works_, vii. 76.

[296]

'As masters fondly soothe their
boys to read
With cakes and sweetmeats.'

_Francis_, Hor. i. _Sat_. I. 25.

[297] As Johnson kept Garrick much in awe when present, David, when his
back was turned, repaid the restraint with ridicule of him and his
dulcinea, which should be read with great abatement. PERCY. He was not
consistent in his account, for 'he told Mrs. Thrale that she was a
_little painted puppet_ of no value at all.' 'He made out,' Mrs. Piozzi
continues, 'some comical scenes, by mimicking her in a dialogue he
pretended to have overheard. I do not know whether he meant such stuff
to be believed or no, it was so comical. The picture I found of her at
Lichfield was very pretty, and her daughter said it was like. Mr.
Johnson has told me that her hair was eminently beautiful, quite
_blonde_ like that of a baby.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 148.

[298] Mr. Croker points out that in this paper 'there are two separate
schemes, the first for a school--the second for the individual studies
of some young friend.'

[299] In the _Rambler_, No. 122, Johnson, after stating that 'it is
observed that our nation has been hitherto remarkably barren of
historical genius,' praises Knolles, who, he says, 'in his _History of
the Turks_, has displayed all the excellencies that narration
can admit.'

[300] Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey
to London. Garrick, evidently meaning to embellish a little, said one
day in my hearing, 'we rode and tied.' And the Bishop of Killaloe
informed me, that at another time, when Johnson and Garrick were dining
together in a pretty large company, Johnson humorously ascertaining the
chronology of something, expressed himself thus: 'that was the year when
I came to London with two-pence half-penny in my pocket.' Garrick
overhearing him, exclaimed, 'eh? what do you say? with two-pence
half-penny in your pocket?'--JOHNSON, 'Why yes; when I came with
two-pence half-penny in _my_ pocket, and thou, Davy, with three
half-pence in thine.' BOSWELL.

[301] See _Gent. Mag_., xxiv. 333.

[302] Mr. Colson was First Master of the Free School at Rochester. In
1739 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.
MALONE. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 49) says that 'by Gelidus the
philosopher (_Rambler_, No. 24), Johnson meant to represent Colson.'

[303] This letter is printed in the _Garrick Corres_. i. 2. There we
read _I doubt not_.

[304] One curious anecdote was communicated by himself to Mr. John
Nichols. Mr. Wilcox, the bookseller, on being informed by him that his
intention was to get his livelihood as an authour, eyed his robust frame
attentively, and with a significant look, said, 'You had better buy a
porter's knot.' He however added, 'Wilcox was one of my best friends.'
BOSWELL. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 43) states that Johnson and Garrick had
soon exhausted their small stock of money in London, and that on
Garrick's suggestion they applied for a loan to Wilcox, of whom he had a
slight knowledge. 'Representing themselves to him, as they really were,
two young men, friends and travellers from the same place, and just
arrived with a view to settle here, he was so moved with their artless
tale, that on their joint note he advanced them all that their modesty
would permit them to ask (five pounds), which was soon after punctually
repaid.' Perhaps Johnson was thinking of himself when he recorded the
advice given by Cibber to Fenton, 'When the tragedy of Mariamne was
shewn to Cibber, it was rejected by him, with the additional insolence
of advising Fenton to engage himself in some employment of honest
labour, by which he might obtain that support which he could never hope
from his poetry. The play was acted at the other theatre; and the brutal
petulance of Cibber was confuted, though perhaps not shamed, by general
applausc.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 56. Adam Smith in the _Wealth of
Nations_ (Book i. ch. 2) says that 'the difference between the most
dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street-porter,
for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit,
custom, and education.' Wilcox's shop was in Little Britain. Benjamin
Franklin, in 1725, lodged next door to him. 'He had,' says Franklin
(_Memoirs_, i. 64), 'an immense collection of second-hand books.
Circulating libraries were not then in use; but we agreed that on
certain reasonable terms I might read any of his books.'

[305] Bernard Lintot (_post_, July 19, 1763) died Feb. 3, 1736. _Gent.
Mag_. vi. 110. This, no doubt, was his son.

[306] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 195) says that being in London in 1746
he dined frequently with a club of officers, where they had an excellent
dinner at ten-pence. From what he adds it is clear that the
tavern-keeper made his profit on the wine. At Edinburgh, four years
earlier, he and his fellow-students used to get 'at four-pence a-head a
very good dinner of broth and beef, and a roast and potatoes every day,
with fish three or four times a-week, and all the small beer that was
called for till the cloth was removed' (_ib_. p. 63). W. Hutton, who in
1750 opened a very small book-shop in Birmingham, for which he paid rent
at a shilling a week, says (_Life of Hutton_, p. 84): 'Five shillings a
week covered every expense; as food, rent, washing, lodging, &c.' He
knew how to live wretchedly.

[307] On April 17, 1778, Johnson said: 'Early in life I drank wine; for
many years I drank none. I then for some years drank a great deal. I
then had a severe illness, and left it off, and I have never begun it
again.' Somewhat the same account is given in Boswell's _Hebrides_,
Sept. 16, 1773. Roughly speaking, he seems to have been an abstainer
from about 1736 to at least as late as 1757, and from about 1765 to the
end of his life. In 1751 Hawkins (_Life_, p. 286) describes him as
drinking only lemonade 'in a whole night spent in festivity' at the Ivy
Lane Club. In 1757 he described himself 'as a hardened and shameless
tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only tea'
(Johnson's _Works_, vi. 21). It was, I believe, in his visit to Oxford
in 1759 that 'University College witnessed his drinking three bottles of
port without being the worse for it' (_post_, April 7, 1778). When he
was living in the Temple (between 1760-65) he had the frisk with Langton
and Beauclerk when they made a bowl of _Bishop_ (_post_, 1753). On his
birthday in 1760, he 'resolved to drink less strong liquors' (_Pr. and
Med_. p. 42). In 1762 on his visit to Devonshire he drank three bottles
of wine after supper. This was the only time Reynolds had seen him
intoxicated. (Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 161). In 1763 he affected
Boswell's nerves by keeping him up late to drink port with him (_post_,
July 14, 1763). On April 21, 1764, he records: 'From the beginning of
this year I have in some measure forborne excess of strong drink' (_Pr.
and Med_. p. 51). On Easter Sunday he records: 'Avoided wine' (_id_. p.
55). On March 1, 1765, he is described at Cambridge as 'giving Mrs.
Macaulay for his toast, and drinking her in two bumpers.' It was about
this time that he had the severe illness (_post_, under Oct. 17, 1765,
note). In Feb. 1766, Boswell found him no longer drinking wine. He
shortly returned to it again; for on Aug. 2, 1767, he records, 'I have
for some days forborne wine;' and on Aug. 17, 'By abstinence from wine
and suppers I obtained sudden and great relief' (_Pr. and Med_. pp. 73,
4). According to Hawkins, Johnson said:--'After a ten years' forbearance
of every fluid except tea and sherbet, I drank one glass of wine to the
health of Sir Joshua Reynolds on the evening of the day on which he was
knighted' (Hawkins's _Johnson's Works_ (1787), xi. 215). As Reynolds was
knighted on April 21, 1769 (Taylor's _Reynolds_, i. 321), Hawkins's
report is grossly inaccurate. In Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 16, 1773,
and _post_, March 16, 1776, we find him abstaining. In 1778 he persuaded
Boswell to be 'a water-drinker upon trial' (_post_, April 28, 1778). On
April 7, 1779, 'he was persuaded to drink one glass of claret that he
might judge of it, not from recollection.' On March 20, 1781, Boswell
found that Johnson had lately returned to wine. 'I drink it now
sometimes,' he said, 'but not socially.' He seems to have generally
abstained however. On April 20, 1781, he would not join in drinking
Lichfield ale. On March 17, 1782, he made some punch for himself, by
which in the night he thought 'both his breast and imagination
disordered' (_Pr. and Med_. p. 205). In the spring of this year Hannah
More urged him to take a little wine. 'I can't drink a _little_, child,'
he answered; 'therefore I never touch it' (H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 251).
On July 1, 1784, Beattie, who met him at dinner, says, 'he cannot be
prevailed on to drink wine' (Beattie's _Life_, p. 316). On his death-bed
he refused any 'inebriating sustenance' (_post_, Dec. 1784). It is
remarkable that writing to Dr. Taylor on Aug. 5, 1773, he said:--'Drink
a great deal, and sleep heartily;' and that on June 23, 1776, he again
wrote to him:--'I hope you presever in drinking. My opinion is that I
have drunk too little, and therefore have the gout, for it is of my own
acquisition, as neither my father had it nor my mother' (_Notes and
Queries_, 6th S. v. pp. 422, 3). On Sept. 19, 1777 (_post_), he even
'owned that in his opinion a free use of wine did not shorten life.'
Johnson disapproved of fermented liquors only in the case of those who,
like himself and Boswell, could not keep from excess.

[308] Ofellus, or rather Ofella, is the 'rusticus, abnormis sapiens,
crassaque Minerva' of Horace's _Satire_, ii. 2. 3. What he teaches is
briefly expressed in Pope's Imitation, ii. 2. 1:

'What, and how great, the virtue and the art
To live on little with a cheerful heart
(A doctrine sage, but truly none of mine);
Let's talk, my friends, but talk before we dine.'

In 1769 was published a worthless poem called _The Art of Living in
London_; in which 'instructions were given to persons who live in a
garret, and spend their evenings in an ale-house.' _Gent. Mag_. xxxix.
45. To this Boswell refers.

[309] 'Johnson this day, when we were by ourselves, observed how common
it was for people to talk from books; to retail the sentiments of
others, and not their own; in short, to converse without any originality
of thinking. He was pleased to say, "You and I do not talk from books."'
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 3, 1773.

[310] The passage to Ireland was commonly made from Chester.

[311] The honourable Henry Hervey, third son of the first Earl of
Bristol, quitted the army and took orders. He married a sister of Sir
Thomas Aston, by whom he got the Aston Estate, and assumed the name and
arms of that family. Vide Collins's _Peerage_. BOSWELL.

[312] The following brief mention of Greenwich Park in 1750 is found in
one of Miss Talbot's Letters. 'Then when I come to talk of
Greenwich--Did you ever see it? It was quite a new world to me, and a
very charming one. Only on the top of a most inaccessible hill in the
park, just as we were arrived at a view that we had long been aiming at,
a violent clap of thunder burst over our heads.'--_Carter and Talbot
Corres_, i. 345.

[313] At the Oxford Commemoration of 1733 Courayer returned thanks in
his robes to the University for the honour it had done him two years
before in presenting him with his degree. _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and
his Critics_, p. 94.

[314] This library was given by George IV to the British Museum. CROKER.

[315] Ovid, Meta. iii. 724.

[316] Act iii. sc. 8.

[317] Act i. sc. 1.

[318] Act ii. sc. 7.

[319] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 232 [Sept. 20,
1773]. BOSWELL.

[320] Johnson's letter to her of Feb. 6, 1759, shows that she was, at
that time, living in his house at Lichfield. Miss Seward (_Letters_, i.
116) says that 'she boarded in Lichfield with his mother.' Some passages
in other of his letters (Croker's _Boswell_, pp. 144, 145, 173) lead me
to think that she stayed on in this house till 1766, when she had built
herself a house with money left her by her brother.

[321] See _post_, Oct. 10, 1779.

[322] He could scarcely have solicited a worse manager. Horace Walpole
writing in 1744 (_Letters_, i. 332) says: 'The town has been trying all
this winter to beat pantomimes off the stage very boisterously.
Fleetwood, the master of Drury-Lane, has omitted nothing to support them
as they supported his house. About ten days ago, he let into the pit
great numbers of Bear-garden _bruisers_ (that is the term) to knock down
everybody that hissed. The pit rallied their forces and drove them out.'

[323] It was not till volume v. that Cave's name was given on the
title-page. In volumes viii. and ix., and volumes xii. to xvii. the name
is Edward Cave, Jun. Cave in his examination before the House of Lords
on April 30, 1747, said:--'That he was concerned in the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ at first with his nephew; and since the death of his nephew he
has done it entirely himself.' _Parl. Hist_. xiv. 59.

[324] Its sale, according to Johnson, was ten thousand copies. _Post_,
April 25, 1778. So popular was it that before it had completed its ninth
year the fifth edition of some of the earliest numbers was printed.
Johnson's _Works_, v. 349. In the _Life of Cave_ Johnson describes it as
'a periodical pamphlet, of which the scheme is known wherever the
English language is spoken.' _Ib_. vi. 431.

[325] Yet the early numbers contained verses as grossly indecent as they
were dull. Cave moreover advertised indecent books for sale at St.
John's Gate, and in one instance, at least, the advertisement was in
very gross language.

[326] See _post_, April 25, 1778.

[327] While in the course of my narrative I enumerate his writings, I
shall take care that my readers shall not be left to waver in doubt,
between certainty and conjecture, with regard to their authenticity;
and, for that purpose, shall mark with an _asterisk_ (*) those which he
acknowledged to his friends, and with a _dagger_ (dagger) those which
are ascertained to be his by internal evidence. When any other pieces
are ascribed to him, I shall give my reasons. BOSWELL.

[328] Hawkins says that 'Cave had few of those qualities that constitute
the character of urbanity. Upon the first approach of a stranger his
practice was to continue sitting, and for a few minutes to continue
silent. If at any time he was inclined to begin the discourse, it was
generally by putting a leaf of the _Magazine_ then in the press into the
hand of his visitor and asking his opinion of it. He was so incompetent
a judge of Johnson's abilities that, meaning at one time to dazzle him
with the splendour of some of those luminaries in literature who
favoured him with their correspondence, he told him that, if he would in
the evening be at a certain alehouse in the neighbourhood of
Clerkenwell, he might have a chance of seeing Mr. Browne and another or
two of the persons mentioned in the preceding note. [The note contained
the names of some of Cave's regular writers.] Johnson accepted the
invitation; and being introduced by Cave, dressed in a loose horseman's
coat, and such a great bushy uncombed wig as he constantly wore, to the
sight of Mr. Browne, whom he found sitting at the upper end of a long
table, in a cloud of tobacco-smoke, had his curiosity gratified.' [Mr.
Carlyle writes of 'bushy-wigged Cave;' but it was Johnson whose wig is
described, and not Cave's. On p. 327 Hawkins again mentions his 'great
bushy wig,' and says that 'it was ever nearly as impenetrable by a comb
as a quickset hedge.'] Hawkins's _Johnson_, pp. 45-50. Johnson, after
mentioning Cave's slowness, says: 'The same chillness of mind was
observable in his conversation; he was watching the minutest accent of
those whom he disgusted by seeming inattention; and his visitant was
surprised, when he came a second time, by preparations to execute the
scheme which he supposed never to have been heard.' Johnson's
_Works_, vi. 434.

[329] 'The first lines put one in mind of Casimir's Ode to Pope Urban:--

"Urbane, regum maxime, maxime
Urbane vatum."

The Polish poet was probably at that time in the hands of a man who had
meditated the history of the Latin poets.' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 42.

[330] Cave had been grossly attacked by rival booksellers; see _Gent.
Mag_., viii. 156. Hawkins says (_Life_, p. 92), 'With that sagacity
which we frequently observe, but wonder at, in men of slow parts, he
seemed to anticipate the advice contained in Johnson's ode, and forbore
a reply, though not his revenge.' This he gratified by reprinting in his
own Magazine one of the most scurrilous and foolish attacks.

[331] A translation of this Ode, by an unknown correspondent, appeared
in the _Magazine_ for the month of May following:

'Hail, URBAN! indefatigable man,
Unwearied yet by all thy useful toil!
Whom num'rous slanderers assault in vain;
Whom no base calumny can put to foil.
But still the laurel on thy learned brow
Flourishes fair, and shall for ever grow.

'What mean the servile imitating crew,
What their vain blust'ring, and their empty noise,
Ne'er seek: but still thy noble ends pursue,
Unconquer'd by the rabble's venal voice.
Still to the Muse thy studious mind apply,
Happy in temper as in industry.

'The senseless sneerings of an haughty tongue,
Unworthy thy attention to engage,
Unheeded pass: and tho' they mean thee wrong,
By manly silence disappoint their rage.
Assiduous diligence confounds its foes,
Resistless, tho' malicious crouds opposc.

'Exert thy powers, nor slacken in the course,
Thy spotless fame shall quash all false reports:
Exert thy powers, nor fear a rival's force,
But thou shalt smile at all his vain efforts;
Thy labours shall be crown'd with large success;
The Muse's aid thy Magazine shall bless.

'No page more grateful to th' harmonious nine
Than that wherein thy labours we survey;
Where solemn themes in fuller splendour shine,
(Delightful mixture,) blended with the gay,
Where in improving, various joys we find,
A welcome respite to the wearied mind.

'Thus when the nymphs in some fair verdant mead,
Of various flowr's a beauteous wreath compose,
The lovely violet's azure-painted head
Adds lustre to the crimson-blushing rosc.
Thus splendid Iris, with her varied dye,
Shines in the aether, and adorns the sky. BRITON.'

BOSWELL.

[332] 'I have some reason to think that at his first coming to town he
frequented Slaughter's coffee-house with a view to acquire a habit of
speaking French, but he never could attain to it. Lockman used the same
method and succeeded, as Johnson himself once told me.' Hawkins's
_Johnson_, p. 516. Lockman is _l'ilustre Lockman_ mentioned _post_,
1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. It was at 'Old Slaughter's
Coffee-house, when a number of foreigners were talking loud about little
matters, that Johnson one evening said, "Does not this confirm old
Meynell's observation, _For anything I see, foreigners are fools_"?'
_post_, ib.

[333] He had read Petrarch 'when but a boy;' _ante_, p. 57.

[334] Horace Walpole, writing of the year 1770, about libels, says:
'Their excess was shocking, and in nothing more condemnable than in the
dangers they brought on the liberty of the press.' This evil was chiefly
due to 'the spirit of the Court, which aimed at despotism, and the
daring attempts of Lord Mansfield to stifle the liberty of the press.
His innovations had given such an alarm that scarce a jury would find
the rankest satire libellous.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iv.
167. Smollett in _Humphrey Clinker_ (published in 1771) makes Mr.
Bramble write, in his letter of June 2: 'The public papers are become
the infamous vehicles of the most cruel and perfidious defamation; every
rancorous knave--every desperate incendiary, that can afford to spend
half-a-crown or three shillings, may skulk behind the press of a
newsmonger, and have a stab at the first character in the kingdom,
without running the least hazard of detection or punishment.' The
scribblers who had of late shewn their petulance were not always
obscure. Such scurrilous but humorous pieces as _Probationary Odes for
the Laureateship_, _The Rolliad_, and _Royal Recollections_, which were
all published while Boswell was writing _The Life of Johnson_, were
written, there can be little doubt, by men of position. In the first of
the three (p. 27) Boswell is ridiculed. He is made to say:--'I know
Mulgrave is a bit of a poet as well as myself; for I dined in company
once where he dined that very day twelve-month.' This evil of libelling
had extended to America. Benjamin Franklin (_Memoirs_, i. 148), writing
in 1784, says that 'libelling and personal abuse have of late years
become so disgraceful to our country. Many of our printers make no
scruple of gratifying the malice of individuals by false accusations of
the fairest characters.'

[335] Boswell perhaps refers to a book published in 1758, called _The
Case of Authors by Profession. Gent. Mag_. xxviii. 130. Guthrie applies
the term to himself in the letter below.

[336] How much poetry he wrote, I know not: but he informed me, that he
was the authour of the beautiful little piece, _The Eagle and Robin
Redbreast_, in the collection of poems entitled _The Union_, though it
is there said to be written by Archibald Scott, before the year 1600.
BOSWELL. Mr. P. Cunningham has seen a letter of Jos. Warton's which
states that this poem was written by his brother Tom, who edited the
volume. CROKER.

[337] Dr. A. Carlyle in his _Autobiography_ (p. 191) describes a curious
scene that he witnessed in the British Coffee-house. A Captain Cheap
'was employed by Lord Anson to look out for a proper person to write his
voyage. Cheap had a predilection for his countrymen, and having heard of
Guthrie, he had come down to the coffee-house to inquire about him. Not
long after Cheap had sat down, Guthrie arrived, dressed in laced
clothes, and talking loud to everybody, and soon fell awrangling with a
gentleman about tragedy and comedy and the unities, &c., and laid down
the law of the drama in a peremptory manner, supporting his arguments
with cursing and swearing. I saw Cheap was astonished, when, going to
the bar, he asked who this was, and finding it was Guthrie he paid his
coffee and slunk off in silence.' Guthrie's meanness is shown by the
following letter in D'Israeli's _Calamities of Authors_, i. 5:--

'June 3, 1762.

'My Lord,

'In the year 1745-6 Mr. Pelham, then First Lord of the Treasury,
acquainted me that it was his Majesty's pleasure I should receive till
better provided for, which never has happened, 200L. a year, to be paid
by him and his successors in the Treasury. I was satisfied with the
august name made use of, and the appointment has been regularly and
quarterly paid me ever since. I have been equally punctual in doing the
Government all the services that fell within my abilities or sphere of
life, especially in those critical situations that call for unanimity in
the service of the Crown.

'Your Lordship may possibly now suspect that I am an Author by
profession; you are not deceived; and will be less so, if you believe
that I am disposed to serve his Majesty under your Lordship's future
patronage and protection with greater zeal, if possible, than ever.

'I have the honour to be

'My Lord &c.

'WILLIAM GUTHRIE.'

The lord's name is not given. See _post_, spring of 1768, and 1780 in
Mr. Langton's _Collection_ for further mention of Guthrie.

[338] Perhaps there were Scotticisms for Johnson to correct; for
Churchill in _The Author_, writing of Guthrie, asks:--

'With rude unnatural jargon to support Half _Scotch_, half _English_, a
declining Court

* * * * *

Is there not Guthrie?'

_Churchill's Poems_, ii. 39.

[339] See Appendix A.

[340] Pope, _Imitations of Horace_, ii. l. 71.

[341] 'To give the world assurance of a man.' _Hamlet_, Act iii. sc. 4.

[342] In his _Life of Pope_ Johnson says: 'This mode of imitation ...
was first practised in the reign of Charles II. by Oldham and Rochester;
at least I remember no instances more ancient. It is a kind of middle
composition between translation and original design, which pleases when
the thoughts are unexpectedly applicable and the parallels lucky. It
seems to have been Pope's favourite amusement, for he has carried it
farther than any former poet.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 295.

[343] I own it pleased me to find amongst them one trait of the manners
of the age in London, in the last century, to shield from the sneer of
English ridicule, which was some time ago too common a practice in my
native city of Edinburgh:--