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

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

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58

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 thesc. 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_.
viii. 395

[521] Malone most likely is meant. Mr. Croker says:--'Johnson has
"_indifferently_" in the sense of "_without concern_" in his
_Dictionary_, with this example from _Shakespeare_, "And I will look on
death indifferently."' Johnson however here defines indifferently as _in
a neutral state; without wish or aversion_; which is not the same as
_without concern_. The passage, which is from _Julius Caesar_, i. 2, is
not correctly given. It is--

'Set honour in one eye and death
i' the other
And I will look on both indifferently.'

We may compare Johnson's use of _indifferent_ in his Letter to
Chesterfield, _post_, Feb. 7, 1755:--'The notice which you have been
pleased to take of my labours ... has been delayed till I am
indifferent, and cannot enjoy it.'

[522] 'Radcliffe, when quite a boy, had been engaged in the rebellion of
1715, and being attainted had escaped from Newgate.... During the
insurrection [of 1745], having been captured on board a French vessel
bound for Scotland, he was arraigned on his original sentence which had
slumbered so long. The only trial now conceded to him was confined to
his identity. For such a course there was no precedent, except in the
case of Sir Walter Raleigh, which had brought shame upon the reign of
James I.' Campbell's _Chancellors_ (edit. 1846), v. 108. Campbell adds,
'his execution, I think, reflects great disgrace upon Lord Hardwicke
[the Lord Chancellor].'

[523] In the original _end_.

[524] "These verses are somewhat too severe on the extraordinary person
who is the chief figure in them, for he was undoubtedly brave. His
pleasantry during his solemn trial (in which, by the way, I have heard
Mr. David Hume observe, that we have one of the very few speeches of Mr.
Murray, now Earl of Mansfield, authentically given) was very remarkable.
When asked if he had any questions to put to Sir Everard Fawkener, who
was one of the strongest witnesses against him, he answered, 'I only
wish him joy of his young wife.' And after sentence of death, in the
horrible terms in cases of treason, was pronounced upon him, and he was
retiring from the bar, he said, 'Fare you well, my Lords, we shall not
all meet again in one place.' He behaved with perfect composure at his
execution, and called out '_Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori_?'

'What joys, what glories round him wait,
Who bravely for his country dies!"

FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, iii.2. 13.

BOSWELL.

'Old Lovat was beheaded yesterday,' wrote Horace Walpole on April 10,
1747, 'and died extremely well: without passion, affectation,
buffoonery, or timidity; his behaviour was natural and intrepid.'
_Letters_, ii. 77.

[525] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.

[526] My friend, Mr. Courtenay, whose eulogy on Johnson's Latin Poetry
has been inserted in this Work [_ante_, p. 62], is no less happy in
praising his English Poetry.

But hark, he sings! the strain ev'n Pope admires;
Indignant virtue her own bard inspires.
Sublime as juvenal he pours his lays,
And with the Roman shares congenial praise;--
In glowing numbers now he fires the age,
And Shakspeare's sun relumes the clouded stage.

BOSWELL.

[527] The play is by Ambrose Philips. 'It was concluded with the most
successful Epilogue that was ever yet spoken on the English theatre. The
three first nights it was recited twice; and not only continued to be
demanded through the run, as it is termed, of the play; but, whenever it
is recalled to the stage, where by peculiar fortune, though a copy from
the French, it yet keeps its place, the Epilogue is still expected, and
is still spoken.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 389. See _post_, April 21,
1773, note on Eustace Budgel. The Epilogue is given in vol. v. p. 228 of
Bonn's _Addison_, and the great success that it met with is described in
_The Spectator_, No. 341.

[528] Such poor stuff as the following is certainly not by Johnson:--

'Let musick sound the voice of joy!
Or mirth repeat the jocund tale;
Let Love his wanton wiles employ,
And o'er the season wine prevail.'

[529] 'Dodsley first mentioned to me the scheme of an English
Dictionary; but I had long thought of it.' _Post_, Oct. 10, 1779.

[530] It would seem from the passage to which Boswell refers that Pope
had wished that Johnson should undertake the _Dictionary_. Johnson, in
mentioning Pope, says:--'Of whom I may be justified in affirming that
were he still alive, solicitous as he was for the success of this work,
he would not be displeased that I have undertaken it.' _Works_, v. 20.
As Pope died on May 30, 1744, this renders it likely that the work was
begun earlier than Boswell thought.

[531] In the title-page of the first edition after the name of Hirch
comes that of L. Hawes.

[532] 'During the progress of the work he had received at different
times the amount of his contract; and when his receipts were produced to
him at a tavern-dinner given by the booksellers, it appeared that he had
been paid a hundred pounds and upwards more than his due.' Murphy's
_Johnson_. p. 78. See _post_, beginning of 1756.

[533] 'The truth is, that the several situations which I have been in
having made me long the _plastron_ [butt] of dedications, I am become as
callous to flattery as some people are to abusc.' Lord Chesterfield,
date of Dec. 15, 1755; Chesterfield's _Misc. Works_, iv. 266.

[534] September 22, 1777, going from Ashbourne in Derbyshire, to see
Islam. BOSWELL.

[535] Boswell here says too much, as the following passages in the
_Plan_ prove:--'Who upon this survey can forbear to wish that these
fundamental atoms of our speech might obtain the firmness and
immutability of the primogenial and constituent particles of matter?'
'Those translators who, for want of understanding the characteristical
difference of tongues, have formed a chaotick dialect of heterogeneous
phrases;' 'In one part refinement will be subtilised beyond exactness,
and evidence dilated in another beyond perspicuity.' Johnson's _Works_,
v. 12, 21, 22.

[536] Ausonius, _Epigram_ i. 12.

[537] Whitehead in 1757 succeeded Colley Cibber as poet-laureate, and
dying in 1785 was followed by Thomas Warton. From Warton the line of
succession is Pye, Southey, Wordsworth, Tennyson. See _post_, under
June 13, 1763.

[538] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 176) likewise says that the manuscript passed
through Whitehead and 'other hands' before it reached Chesterfield. Mr.
Croker had seen 'a draft of the prospectus carefully written by an
amanuensis, but signed in great form by Johnson's own hand. It was
evidently that which was laid before Lord Chesterfield. Some useful
remarks are made in his lordship's hand, and some in another. Johnson
adopted all these suggestions.'

[539] This poor piece of criticism confirms what Johnson said of Lord
Orrery:--'He grasped at more than his abilities could reach; tried to
pass for a better talker, a better writer, and a better thinker that he
was.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22, 1773. See _post_, under April
7, 1778.

[540] Birch, _MSS. Brit. Mus_. 4303. BOSWELL.

[541] 'When I survey the _Plan_ which I have laid before you, I cannot,
my Lord, but confess that I am frighted at its extent, and, like the
soldiers of Caesar, look on Britain as a new world, which it is almost
madness to invade.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 21.

[542] There might be applied to him what he said of
Pope:--"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
He, indeed, who forms his opinion of himself in solitude without knowing
the powers of other men, is very liable to error; but it was the
felicity of Pope to rate himself at his real value." Johnson's _Works_,
viii, 237.

[543] 'For the Teutonick etymologies I am commonly indebted to Junius
and Skinner.... Junius appears to have excelled in extent of learning
and Skinner in rectitude of understanding.... Skinner is often ignorant,
but never ridiculous: Junius is always full of knowledge, but his
variety distracts his judgment, and his learning is very frequently
disgraced by his absurdities.' _Ib_. v. 29. Francis Junius the younger
was born at Heidelberg in 1589, and died at Windsor, at the house of his
nephew Isaac Vossius, in 1678. His _Etymologicum Anglicanum_ was not
published till 1743. Stephen Skinner, M.D., was born in 1623, and died
in 1667. His _Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae_ was published in 1671.
Knight's _Eng. Cycle_.

[544] Thomas Richards published in 1753 _Antiquae Linguae Britannicae
Thesaurus_, to which is prefixed a _Welsh Grammar_ and a collection of
British proverbs.

[545] See Sir John Hawkins's _Life of Johnson_ [p. 171], BOSWELL.

[546] 'The faults of the book resolve themselves, for the most part,
into one great fault. Johnson was a wretched etymologist.' Macaulay's
_Misc. Writings_, p. 382. See _post_, May 13, 1778, for mention of Horne
Tooke's criticism of Johnson's etymologies.

[547] 'The etymology, so far as it is yet known, was easily found in the
volumes where it is particularly and professedly delivered ... But to
COLLECT the WORDS of our language was a task of greater difficulty: the
deficiency of dictionaries was immediately apparent; and when they were
exhausted, what was yet wanting must be sought by fortuitous and
unguided excursions into books, and gleaned as industry should find, or
chance should offer it, in the boundless chaos of a living speech.'
Johnson's _Works_, v. 31.

[548] See _post_, under April 10, 1776. BOSWELL.

[549] 'Mr. Macbean,' said Johnson in 1778, 'is a man of great learning,
and for his learning I respect him, and I wish to serve him. He knows
many languages, and knows them well; but he knows nothing of life. I
advised him to write a geographical dictionary; but I have lost all
hopes of his ever doing anything properly, since I found he gave as much
labour to Capua as to Rome.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i, 114. See _post_
beginning of 1773, and Oct 24, 1780.

[550] Boswell is speaking of the book published under the name of
_Cibber_ mentioned above, but 'entirely compiled,' according to Johnson,
by Shiels. See _post_, April 10, 1776.

[551] See _Piozzi Letters_, i. 312, and _post_, May 21, 1775, note.

[552] 'We ourselves, not without labour and risk, lately discovered
Gough Square.... and on the second day of search the very House there,
wherein the _English Dictionary_ was composed. It is the first or corner
house on the right hand, as you enter through the arched way from the
North-west ... It is a stout, old-fashioned, oak-balustraded house: "I
have spent many a pound and penny on it since then," said the worthy
Landlord: "here, you see, this bedroom was the Doctor's study; that was
the garden" (a plot of delved ground somewhat larger than a bed-quilt)
"where he walked for exercise; these three garret bedrooms" (where his
three [six] copyists sat and wrote) "were the place he kept
his--_pupils_ in": _Tempus edax rerum!_ Yet _ferax_ also: for our friend
now added, with a wistful look, which strove to seem merely historical:
"I let it all in lodgings, to respectable gentlemen; by the quarter or
the month; it's all one to me."--"To me also," whispered the ghost of
Samuel, as we went pensively our ways.' Carlyle's _Miscellanies_, edit,
of 1872, iv. 112.

[553] Boswell's account of the manner in which Johnson compiled his
_Dictionary_ is confused and erroneous. He began his task (as he himself
expressly described to me), by devoting his first care to a diligent
perusal of all such English writers as were most correct in their
language, and under every sentence which he meant to quote he drew a
line, and noted in the margin the first letter of the word under which
it was to occur. He then delivered these books to his clerks, who
transcribed each sentence on a separate slip of paper, and arranged the
same under the word referred to. By these means he collected the several
words and their different significations; and when the whole arrangement
was alphabetically formed, he gave the definitions of their meanings,
and collected their etymologies from Skinner, Junius, and other writers
on the subject. PERCY.

[554] 'The books he used for this purpose were what he had in his own
collection, a copious but a miserably ragged one, and all such as he
could borrow; which latter, if ever they came back to those that lent
them, were so defaced as to be scarce worth owning, and yet some of his
friends were glad to receive and entertain them as curiosities.'
Hawkins, p. 175.

[555] In the copy that he thus marked of Sir Matthew Hale's _Primitive
Origination of Mankind_, opposite the passage where it is stated, that
'Averroes says that if the world were not eternal ... it could never
have been at all, because an eternal duration must necessarily have
anteceded the first production of the world,' he has written:--'This
argument will hold good equally against the writing that I now write.'

[556] Boswell must mean 'whose writings _taken as a whole_ had a
tendency,' &c. Johnson quotes Dryden, and of Dryden he says:--'Of the
mind that can trade in corruption, and can deliberately pollute itself
with ideal wickedness for the sake of spreading the contagion in
society, I wish not to conceal or excuse the depravity. Such degradation
of the dignity of genius, such abuse of superlative abilities, cannot be
contemplated but with grief and indignation. What consolation can be had
Dryden has afforded by living to repent, and to testify his repentance.'
Johnson's _Works_, vii. 293. He quotes Congreve, and of Congreve he
says: 'It is acknowledged, with universal conviction, that the perusal
of his works will make no man better; and that their ultimate effect is
to represent pleasure in alliance with vice, and to relax those
obligations by which life ought to be regulated.' _Ib_. viii. 28. He
would not quote Dr. Clarke, much as he admired him, because he was not
sound upon the doctrine of the Trinity. _Post_, Dec., 1784, note.

[557] In the _Plan to the Dictionary_, written in 1747, he describes his
task as one that 'may be successfully performed without any higher
quality than that of bearing burdens with dull patience, and beating the
track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution.' _Works_, v. 1. In 1751,
in the _Rambler_, No. 141, he thus pleasantly touches on his work: 'The
task of every other slave [except the 'wit'] has an end. The rower in
time reaches the port; the lexicographer at last finds the conclusion of
his alphabet.' On April 15, 1755, he writes to his friend Hector:--'I
wish, come of wishes what will, that my work may please you, as much as
it now and then pleased me, for I did not find dictionary making so very
unpleasant as it may be thought.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. 111, 301.
He told Dr. Blacklock that 'it was easier to him to write poetry than to
compose his _Dictionary_. His mind was less on the stretch in doing the
one than the other.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1773.

[558] The well-known picture of the company at Tunbridge Wells in Aug.
1748, with the references in Richardson's own writing, is given as a
frontispiece to vol. iii. of Richardson's _Correspondence_. There can be
no doubt that the figure marked by Richardson as Dr. Johnson is not
Samuel Johnson, who did not receive a doctor's degree till more than
four years after Richardson's death.

[559] 'Johnson hardly ever spoke of Bathurst without tears in his eyes.'
Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 56. Mrs. Piozzi, after recording an anecdote that
he had related to her of his childhood, continues:--'"I cannot imagine,"
said he, "what makes me talk of myself to you so, for I really never
mentioned this foolish story to anybody except Dr. Taylor, not even to
my dear, dear Bathurst, whom I loved better than ever I loved any human
creature; but poor Bathurst is dead!" Here a long pause and a few tears
ensued.' Piozzi's _Anec_., p. 18. Another day he said to her:--'Dear
Bathurst was a man to my very heart's content: he hated a fool, and he
hated a rogue, and he hated a Whig; he was a very good hater.' _Ib_. p.
83. In his _Meditations on Easter-Day_, 1764, he records:--'After sermon
I recommended Tetty in a prayer by herself; and my father, mother,
brother, and Bathurst in another.' _Pr. and Med_., p. 54. See also
_post_, under March 18, 1752, and 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.

[560] Of Hawkesworth Johnson thus wrote: 'An account of Dr. Swift has
been already collected, with great diligence and acuteness, by Dr.
Hawkesworth, according to a scheme which I laid before him in the
intimacy of our friendship. I cannot therefore be expected to say much
of a life concerning which I had long since communicated my thoughts to
a man capable of dignifying his narrations with so much elegance of
language and force of sentiment.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 192.
Hawkesworth was an imitator of Johnson's style; _post_, under Jan.
1, 1753.

[561] He was afterwards for several years Chairman of the Middlesex
justices, and upon occasion of presenting an address to the King,
accepted the usual offer of Knighthood. He is authour of 'A History of
Musick,' in five volumes in quarto. By assiduous attendance upon Johnson
in his last illness, he obtained the office of one of his executors; in
consequence of which, the booksellers of London employed him to publish
an edition of Dr. Johnson's works, and to write his Life. BOSWELL. This
description of Hawkins, as 'Mr. John Hawkins, an attorney,' is a reply
to his description of Boswell as 'Mr. James Boswell, a native of
Scotland.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 472. According to Miss Hawkins,
'Boswell complained to her father of the manner in which he was
described. Where was the offence? It was one of those which a
complainant hardly dares to embody in words; he would only repeat,
"Well, but _Mr. James Boswell_, surely, surely, _Mr. James Boswell_"'
Miss Hawkins's _Memoirs_, i. 235. Boswell in thus styling Hawkins
remembered no doubt Johnson's sarcasm against attorneys. See _post_,
1770, in Dr. Maxwell's _Collectanea_. Hawkins's edition of _Johnson's
Works_ was published in 1787-9, in 13 vols., 8vo., the last two vols.
being edited by Stockdale. In vol. xi. is a collection of Johnson's
sayings, under the name of _Apothegms_, many of which I quote in
my notes.

[562] Boswell, it is clear, has taken his account of the club from
Hawkins, who writes:--'Johnson had, in the winter of 1749, formed a club
that met weekly at the King's Head, a famous beef-steak house in Ivy
Lane, near St. Paul's, every Tuesday evening. Thither he constantly
resorted with a disposition to please and be pleased. Our conversations
seldom began till after a supper so very solid and substantial as led us
to think that with him it was a dinner.

'By the help of this refection, and no other incentive to hilarity than
lemonade, Johnson was in a short time after our assembling transformed
into a new creature; his habitual melancholy and lassitude of spirit
gave way; his countenance brightened.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, pp. 219,
250. Other parts of Hawkins's account do not agree with passages in
Johnson's letters to Mrs. Thrale written in 1783-4. 'I dined about a
fortnight ago with three old friends [Hawkins, Ryland, and Payne]; we
had not met together for thirty years. In the thirty years two of our
set have died.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 339. 'We used to meet weekly about
the year fifty.' _Ib_. p. 361. 'The people whom I mentioned in my letter
are the remnant of a little club that used to meet in Ivy Lane about
three and thirty years ago, out of which we have lost Hawkesworth and
Dyer, the rest are yet on this side the grave.' _Ib_. p. 363. Hawkins
says the club broke up about 1756 (_Life_, p. 361). Johnson in the first
of the passages says they had not met at all for thirty years--that is
to say, not since 1753; while in the last two passages he implies that
their weekly meetings came to an end about 1751. I cannot understand
moreover how, if Bathurst, 'his beloved friend,' belonged to the club,
Johnson should have forgotten it. Bathurst died in the expedition to the
Havannah about 1762. Two others of those given in Hawkins's list were
certainly dead by 1783. M'Ghie, who died while the club existed (_Ib_.
p. 361), and Dr. Salter. A writer in the _Builder_ (Dec. 1884) says,
'The King's Head was burnt down twenty-five years ago, but the cellarage
remains beneath No. 4, Alldis's dining-rooms, on the eastern side.'

[563] Tom Tyers said that Johnson 'in one night composed, after
finishing an evening in Holborn, his _Hermit of Teneriffe_.' _Gent.
Mag_. for 1784, p. 901. The high value that he set on this piece may be
accounted for in his own words. 'Many causes may vitiate a writer's
judgment of his own works.... What has been produced without toilsome
efforts is considered with delight, as a proof of vigorous faculties and
fertile invention.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 110. He had said much the
same thirty years earlier in _The Rambler_ (No. 21).