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

[721]

'O et praesidium et dulce decus meum.'
'My joy, my guard, and sweetest good.'

CREECH. Horace, _Odes_, i. I. 2.

[722] It was in 1738 that Johnson was living in Castle Street. At the
time of Reynolds's arrival in London in 1752 he had been living for some
years in Gough Square. Boswell, I suppose, only means to say that
Johnson's acquaintance with the Cotterells was formed when he lived in
their neighbourhood. Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, i. 69) says that the
Cotterells lived 'opposite to Reynolds's,' but his account seems based
on a misunderstanding of Boswell.

[723] _Ante_, p. 165.

[724] 'We are both of Dr. Johnson's school,' wrote Reynolds to some
friend. 'For my own part, I acknowledge the highest obligations to him.
He may be said to have formed my mind, and to have brushed from it a
great deal of rubbish. Those very persons whom he has brought to think
rightly will occasionally criticise the opinions of their master when he
nods. But we should always recollect that it is he himself who taught us
and enabled us to do it.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 461. Burke, writing
to Malone, said:--'You state very properly how much Reynolds owed to the
writings and conversation of Johnson; and nothing shews more the
greatness of Sir Joshua's parts than his taking advantage of both, and
making some application of them to his profession, when Johnson neither
understood nor desired to understand anything of painting.' _Ib_. p.
638. Reynolds, there can be little question, is thinking of Johnson in
the following passage in his _Seventh Discourse_:--'What partial and
desultory reading cannot afford may be supplied by the conversation of
learned and ingenious men, which is the best of all substitutes for
those who have not the means or opportunities of deep study. There are
many such men in this age: and they will be pleased with communicating
their ideas to artists, when they see them curious and docile, if they
are treated with that respect and deference which is so justly their
due. Into such society young artists, if they make it the point of their
ambition, will by degrees be admitted. There, without formal teaching,
they will insensibly come to feel and reason like those they live with,
and find a rational and systematic taste imperceptibly formed in their
minds, which they will know how to reduce to a standard, by applying
general truth to their own purposes, better perhaps than those to whom
they owned [?owed] the original sentiment.' Reynolds's _Works_, edit.
1824, i. 149. 'Another thing remarkable to shew how little Sir Joshua
crouched to the great is, that he never gave them their proper titles. I
never heard the words "your lordship" or "your ladyship" come from his
mouth; nor did he ever say "Sir" in speaking to any one but Dr. Johnson;
and when he did not hear distinctly what the latter said (which often
happened) he would then say "Sir?" that he might repeat it.' Northcote's
_Conversations_, p. 289. Gibbon called Johnson 'Reynolds's oracle.'
Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 149. See also _post_, under Dec. 29, 1778.

[725] The thought may have been suggested to Reynolds by Johnson's
writings. In _The Rambler_, No. 87, he had said:--'There are minds so
impatient of inferiority, that their gratitude is a species of revenge,
and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but
because obligation is a pain.' In No. 166, he says:--'To be obliged is
to be in some respect inferior to another.'

[726] Northcote tells the following story on the authority of Miss
Reynolds. It is to be noticed, however, that in her _Recollections_
(Croker's _Boswell_, p. 832) the story is told somewhat differently.
Johnson, Reynolds and Miss Reynolds one day called on the Miss
Cotterells. 'Johnson was the last of the three that came in; when the
maid, seeing this uncouth and dirty figure of a man, and not conceiving
he could be one of the company, laid hold of his coat, just as he was
going up-stairs, and pulled him back again, saying, "You fellow, what is
your business here? I suppose you intended to rob the house." This most
unlucky accident threw him into such a fit of shame and anger that he
roared out like a bull, "What have I done? What have I done?"'
Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 73.

[727] Johnson writing to Langton on January 9, 1759, describes him as
'towering in the confidence of twenty-one.' The conclusion of _The
Rambler_ was in March 1752, when Langton must have been only fourteen or
just fifteen at most; Johnson's first letter to him dated May 6, 1755,
shews that at that time their acquaintance had been but short. Langton's
subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles in the Register of the
University of Oxford was on July 7, 1757. Johnson's first letter to him
at Oxford is dated June 28, 1757.

[728] See _post_, March 20, 1782.

[729] 'My friend Maltby and I,' said Samuel Rogers, 'when we were very
young men, had a strong desire to see Dr. Johnson; and we determined to
call upon him, and introduce ourselves. We accordingly proceeded to his
house in Bolt Court; and I had my hand on the knocker when our courage
failed us, and we retreated. Many years afterwards I mentioned this
circumstance to Boswell, who said, "What a pity that you did not go
boldly in! He would have received you with all kindness."' Rogers's
_Table Talk_, p. 9. For Johnson's levee see _post_, 1770, in Dr.
Maxwell's _Collectanea_.

[730] 'George Langton,' writes Mr. Best in his _Memorials_ (p. 66),
'shewed me his pedigree with the names and arms of the families with
which his own had intermarried. It was engrossed on a piece of parchment
about ten inches broad, and twelve to fifteen feet long. "It leaves off
at the reign of Queen Elizabeth," said he.'

[731] Topham Beauclerk was the only son of Lord Sidney Beauclerk, fifth
son of the first Duke of St. Alban's. He was therefore the
great-grandson of Charles II. and Nell Gwynne. He was born in Dec. 1739.
In my _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and his Critics_ I have put together
such facts as I could find about Langton and Beauclerk.

[732] Mr. Best describes Langton as 'a very tall, meagre, long-visaged
man, much resembling a stork standing on one leg near the shore in
Raphael's cartoon of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes. His manners were,
in the highest degree, polished; his conversation mild, equable and
always pleasing.' Best's _Memorials_, p. 62. Miss Hawkins writes:--'If I
were called on to name the person with whom Johnson might have been seen
to the fairest advantage, I should certainly name Mr. Langton.' Miss
Hawkins's _Memoirs_, i. 144. Mrs. Piozzi wrote in 1817:--'I remember
when to have Langton at a man's house stamped him at once a literary
character.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 203.

[733] In the summer of 1759. See _post_, under April 15, 1758, and 1759.

[734] Lord Charlemont said that 'Beauclerk possessed an exquisite taste,
various accomplishments, and the most perfect good breeding. He was
eccentric, often querulous, entertaining a contempt for the generality
of the world, which the politeness of his manners could not always
conceal; but to those whom he liked most generous and friendly. Devoted
at one time to pleasure, at another to literature, sometimes absorbed in
play, sometimes in books, he was altogether one of the most
accomplished, and when in good humour and surrounded by those who suited
his fancy, one of the most agreeable men that could possibly exist.'
Lord Charlemont's _Life_, i. 210. Hawkins writes (_Life_, p. 422) that
'over all his behaviour there beamed such a sunshine of cheerfulness and
good-humour as communicated itself to all around him.' Mrs. Piozzi said
of him:--'Topham Beauclerk (wicked and profligate as he wished to be
accounted) was yet a man of very strict veracity. Oh Lord! how I did
hate that horrid Beauclerk.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, i. 348. Rogers
(_Table-Talk_, p. 40) said that 'Beauclerk was a strangely absent
person.' He once went to dress for a dinner-party in his own house. 'He
forgot all about his guests; thought that it was bed-time, and got into
bed. His servant, coming to tell him that his guests were waiting for
him, found him fast asleep.'

[735] It was to the Round-house that Captain Booth was first taken in
Fielding's _Amelia_, Book i, chap. 2.

[736]

'Blends, in exception to all general rules,
Your taste of follies with our scorn of fools.'

Pope, _Moral Essays_, ii. 275.

[737] In the college which _The Club_ was to set up at St. Andrew's,
Beauclerk was to have the chair of natural philosophy. Boswell's
_Hebrides_, Aug. 25, 1773. Goldsmith, writing to Langton in 1771, says:
'Mr. Beauclerk is now going directly forward to become a second Boyle;
deep in chymistry and physics.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 283. Boswell
described to Temple, in 1775, Beauclerk's villa at Muswell Hill, with
its 'observatory, laboratory for chymical experiments.' Boswell's
_Letters_, p. 194.

[738] 'I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should
do.' 1 Henry IV. Act v. sc. 4.

[739] 'Bishop. A cant word for a mixture of wine, oranges, and sugar.'
Johnson's _Dictionary_.

[740] Mr. Langton has recollected, or Dr. Johnson repeated, the passage
wrong. The lines are in Lord Lansdowne's Drinking Song to Sleep, and
run thus:--

'Short, very short be then thy reign,
For I'm in haste to laugh and drink again.' BOSWELL.

Lord Lansdowne was the Granville of Pope's couplet--

'But why then publish? Granville the polite,
And knowing Walsh, would tell me I could write.'

_Prologue to the Satires,_ 1.135.

[741] Boswell in _Hebrides_ (Aug. 18, 1773) says that Johnson, on
starting from Edinburgh, left behind in an open drawer in Boswell's
house 'one volume of a pretty full and curious Diary of his life, of
which I have a few fragments.' He also states (_post_, under Dec 9,
1784):--'I owned to him, that having accidentally seen them [two quarto
volumes of his _Life_] I had read a great deal in them.' It would seem
that he had also transcribed a portion.

[742] This is inconsistent with what immediately follows, for No. 39 on
Sleep was published on March 20.

[743] Hawkesworth in the last number of _The Adventurer_ says that he
had help at first from A.; 'but this resource soon failing, I was
obliged to carry on the publication alone, except some casual supplies,
till I obtained from the gentlemen who have distinguished their papers
by T and Z, such assistance as I most wished.' In a note he says that
the papers signed Z are by the Rev. Mr. Warton. The papers signed A are
written in a light style. In Southey's _Cowper_, i. 47, it is said that
Bonnell Thornton wrote them.

[744] Boswell had read the passage carelessly. Statius is mentioned, but
the writer goes on to quote _Cowley_, whose Latin lines C. B. has
translated. Johnson's _Works_, iv. 10.

[745] Malone says that 'Johnson was fond of him, but latterly owned that
Hawkesworth--who had set out a modest, humble man--was one of the many
whom success in the world had spoiled. He was latterly, as Sir Joshua
Reynolds told me, an affected insincere man, and a great coscomb in his
dress. He had no literature whatever.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 441. See
_post_, April 11 and May 7, 1773, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 3.

[746] 'Johnson's statement to Warton is definite and is borne out by
internal evidence, if internal evidence can be needful when he had once
made a definite statement. The papers signed _Misargyrus_, the first of
which appeared on March 3, are all below his style. They were not, I
feel sure, written by him, and are improperly given in the Oxford
edition of his works. I do not find in them even any traces of his hand.
The paper on Sleep, No. 39, is I am almost sure, partly his, but I
believe it is not wholly. In the frequency of quotations in the first
part of it I see another, and probably a younger author. The passage on
the 'low drudgery of digesting dictionaries' is almost certainly his.
Dr. Bathurst, perhaps, wrote the Essay, and Johnson corrected it.
Whether it was Johnson's or not, it was published after the letter to
Dr. Warton was written.

[747] See _post_, April 25, 1778, for an instance where Johnson's
silence did not imply assent.

[748] 'One evening at the Club Johnson proposed to us the celebrating
the birth of Mrs. Lennox's first literary child, as he called her book,
[_The Life of Harriet Stuart_, a novel, published Dec. 1750] by a whole
night spent in festivity. Our supper was elegant, and Johnson had
directed that a magnificent hot apple-pie should make a part of it, and
this he would have stuck with bay-leaves, because, forsooth, Mrs. Lennox
was an authoress, and had written verses; and further, he had prepared
for her a crown of laurel, with which, but not till he had invoked the
Muses by some ceremonies of his own invention, he encircled her brows.
About five Johnson's face shone with meridian splendour, though his
drink had been only lemonade.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 286. See _post_,
1780, in Mr. Langton's 'Collection,' and May 15, 1784.

[749] In a document in the possession of one of Cave's collateral
descendants which I have seen dated May 3, 1754, and headed, 'Present
state of the late Mr. Edward Cave's effects,' I found entered
'_Magazine_, L3,000. _Daily Advertiser_, L900.' The total value of the
effects was L8,708.

[750] Johnson records of his friend that 'one of the last acts of reason
which he exerted was fondly to press the hand that is now writing this
little narrative.' _Works_, vi. 433.

[751] See Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 189.

[752] Lord Chesterfield writing to his son in 1751 (_Letters_, iii. 136)
said:--'People in high life are hardened to the wants and distresses of
mankind, as surgeons are to their bodily pains; they see and hear of
them all day long, and even of so many simulated ones, that they do not
know which has are real, and which are not. Other sentiments are
therefore to be applied to than those of mere justice and humanity;
their favour must be captivated by the _suaviter in modo_; their love of
ease disturbed by unwearied importunity; or their fears wrought upon by
a decent intimation of implacable, cool resentment: this is the true
_fortiter in re_! He was himself to experience an instance of the true
_fortiter in re_.

[753] If Lord Chesterfield had read the last number of _The Rambler_
(published in March, 1752) he could scarcely have flattered himself with
these expectations. Johnson, after saying that he would not endeavour to
overbear the censures of criticism by the influence of a patron,
added:--'The supplications of an author never yet reprieved him a moment
from oblivion; and, though greatness sometimes sheltered guilt, it can
afford no protection to ignorance or dulness. Having hitherto attempted
only the propagation of truth, I will not at last violate it by the
confession of terrors which I do not feel; having laboured to maintain
the dignity of virtue, I will not now degrade it by the meanness of
dedication.'

[754] On Nov. 28 and Dec. 5, 1754. _The World_, by Adam Fitz-Adam, Jan.
1753 to Dec. 1765. The editor was Edward Moore. Among the contributors
were the Earls of Chesterfield and Corke, Horace Walpole, R. O.
Cambridge, and Soame Jenyns. See _post_, July 1, 1763.

[755] With these papers as a whole Johnson would have been highly
offended. The anonymous writer hopes that his readers will not suspect
him 'of being a hired and interested puff of this work.' 'I most
solemnly protest,' he goes on to say, 'that neither Mr. Johnson, nor any
booksellers have ever offered me the usual compliment of a pair of
gloves or a bottle of wine.' It is a pretty piece of irony for a wealthy
nobleman solemnly to protest that he has not been bribed by a poor
author, whom seven years before he had repulsed from his door. But
Chesterfield did worse than this. By way of recommending a work of so
much learning and so much labour he tells a foolish story of an
assignation that had failed 'between a fine gentleman and a fine lady.'
The letter that had passed between them had been badly spelt, and they
had gone to different houses. 'Such examples,' he wrote, 'really make
one tremble; and will, I am convinced, determine my fair fellow-subjects
and their adherents to adopt and scrupulously conform to Mr. Johnson's
rules of true orthography.' Johnson, in the last year of his life, at a
time of great weakness and depression, defended the roughness of his
manner. 'I have done more good as I am. Obscenity and impiety have
always been repressed in my company' (_post_, June 11, 1784).

[756] In the original 'Mr. Johnson.'

[757] In the original 'unnecessary foreign ornaments.'

[758] In the original, 'will now, and, I dare say.'

[759] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 191) says that Chesterfield, further to
appease Johnson, sent to him Sir Thomas Robinson (see _post_, July 19,
1763), who was 'to apologise for his lordship's treatment of him, and to
make him tenders of his future friendship and patronage. Sir Thomas,
whose talent was flattery, was profuse in his commendations of Johnson
and his writings, and declared that, were his circumstances other than
they were, himself would settle L500 a year on him. 'And who are you,'
asked Johnson, 'that talk thus liberally?' 'I am,' said the other, 'Sir
Thomas Robinson, a Yorkshire baronet.' 'Sir,' replied Johnson, 'if the
first peer of the realm were to make me such an offer, I would shew him
the way down stairs.'

[760] _Paradise Lost_, ii. 112.

[761] Johnson, perhaps, was thinking of his interviews with
Chesterfield, when in his _Rambler_ on 'The Mischiefs of following a
Patron' (No. 163) he wrote:--'If you, Mr. Rambler, have ever ventured
your philosophy within the attraction of greatness, you know the force
of such language, introduced with a smile of gracious tenderness, and
impressed at the conclusion with an air of solemn sincerity.'

[762] Johnson said to Garrick:--'I have sailed a long and painful voyage
round the world of the English language; and does he now send out two
cock-boats to tow me into harbour?' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 74. This
metaphor may perhaps have been suggested to Johnson by Warburton. 'I now
begin to see land, after having wandered, according to Mr. Warburton's
phrase, in this vast sea of words.' _Post_, Feb. 1, 1755.

[763] See _post_, Nov. 22, 1779, and April 8, 1780. Sir Henry Ellis says
that 'address' in Johnson's own copy of his letter to Lord Chesterfield
is spelt twice with one _d_. Croker's _Corres_. ii. 44. In the series of
Letters by Johnson given in _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v, Johnson
writes _persuit_ (p. 325); 'I cannot _butt_ (p. 342); 'to retain
_council_' (p. 343); _harrassed_ (p. 423); _imbecillity_ (p. 482). In a
letter to Nichols quoted by me, _post_, beginning of 1783, he writes
_ilness_. He commonly, perhaps always, spelt _Boswell Boswel_, and
Nichols's name in one series of letters he spelt Nichols, Nichol, and
Nicol. _Post_, beginning of 1781, note.

[764] Dr. Johnson appeared to have had a remarkable delicacy with
respect to the circulation of this letter; for Dr. Douglas, Bishop of
Salisbury, informs me that, having many years ago pressed him to be
allowed to read it to the second Lord Hardwicke, who was very desirous
to hear it (promising at the same time, that no copy of it should be
taken), Johnson seemed much pleased that it had attracted the attention
of a nobleman of such a respectable character; but after pausing some
time, declined to comply with the request, saying, with a smile, 'No,
Sir; I have hurt the dog too much already;' or words to that
purpose. BOSWELL.

[765] See _post_, June 4, 1781.

[766] In 1790, the year before the _Life of Johnson_ came out, Boswell
published this letter in a separate sheet of four quarto pages under the
following title:--_The celebrated Letter from Samuel Johnson, LL.D., to
Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield; Now first published with
Notes, by James Boswell, Esq., London. Printed by Henry Baldwin: for
Charles Dilly in the Poultry, MDCCXC. Price Half-a-Guinea. Entered in
the Hall-Book of the Company of Stationers_. It belongs to the same
impression as _The Life of Johnson_.

[767] 'Je chante le vainqueur des vainqueurs de la terre.' Boileau,
_L'Art poetique_, iii. 272.

[768] The following note is subjoined by Mr. Langton:--'Dr. Johnson,
when he gave me this copy of his letter, desired that I would annex to
it his information to me, that whereas it is said in the letter that "no
assistance has been received," he did once receive from Lord
Chesterfield the sum of ten pounds; but as that was so inconsiderable a
sum, he thought the mention of it could not properly find place in a
letter of the kind that this was.' BOSWELL. 'This surely is an
unsatisfactory excuse,' writes Mr. Croker. He read Johnson's letter
carelessly, as the rest of his note shews. Johnson says, that during the
seven years that had passed since he was repulsed from Chesterfield's
door he had pushed on his work without one act of assistance. These ten
pounds, we may feel sure, had been received before the seven years began
to run. No doubt they had been given in 1747 as an acknowledgement of
the compliment paid to Chesterfield in the _Plan_. He had at first been
misled by Chesterfield's one act of kindness, but he had long had his
eyes opened. Like the shepherd in Virgil (_Eclogues_, viii. 43) he could
say:--'_Nunc_ scio quid sit Amor.'

[769] In this passage Dr. Johnson evidently alludes to the loss of his
wife. We find the same tender recollection recurring to his mind upon
innumerable occasions: and, perhaps no man ever more forcibly felt the
truth of the sentiment so elegantly expressed by my friend Mr. Malone,
in his Prologue to Mr. Jephson's tragedy of JULIA [_Julia or the Italian
Lover_ was acted for the first time on April 17, 1787. _Gent. Mag_.
1787, p. 354]:--

'Vain--wealth, and fame, and fortune's fostering care,
If no fond breast the splendid blessings share;
And, each day's bustling pageantry once past,
There, only there, our bliss is found at last.' BOSWELL.

Three years earlier, when his wife was dying, he had written in one of
the last _Ramblers_ (No 203):--'It is necessary to the completion of
every good, that it be timely obtained; for whatever comes at the close
of life will come too late to give much delight ... What we acquire by
bravery or science, by mental or corporal diligence, comes at last when
we cannot communicate, and therefore cannot enjoy it.' Chesterfield
himself was in no happy state. Less than a month before he received
Johnson's letter he wrote (_Works_, iii. 308):--'For these six months
past, it seems as if all the complaints that ever attacked heads had
joined to overpower mine. Continual noises, headache, giddiness, and
impenetrable deafness; I could not stoop to write; and even reading, the
only resource of the deaf, was painful to me.' He wrote to his son a
year earlier (_Letters_, iv. 43), 'Reading, which was always a pleasure
to me in the time even of my greatest dissipation, is now become my only
refuge; and I fear I indulge it too much at the expense of my eyes. But
what can I do? I must do something. I cannot bear absolute idleness; my
ears grow every day more useless to me, my eyes consequently more
necessary. I will not hoard them like a miser, but will rather risk the
loss than not enjoy the use of them.'

[770] '_The English Dictionary_ was written with little assistance of
the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the soft
obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick bowers, but
amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow.'
Johnson's _Works_ v. 51.

[771] Upon comparing this copy with that which Dr. Johnson dictated to
me from recollection, the variations are found to be so slight, that
this must be added to the many other proofs which he gave of the
wonderful extent and accuracy of his memory. To gratify the curious in
composition, I have deposited both the copies in the British
Museum. BOSWELL.

[772] Soon after Edwards's _Canons of Criticism_ came out, Johnson was
dining at Tonson the Bookseller's with Hayman the Painter and some more
company. Hayman related to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that the conversation
having turned upon Edwards's book, the gentlemen praised it much, and
Johnson allowed its merit. But when they went farther, and appeared to
put that author upon a level with Warburton, 'Nay, (said Johnson,) he
has given him some smart hits to be sure; but there is no proportion
between the two men; they must not be named together. A fly, Sir, may
sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and
the other is a horse still.' BOSWELL. Johnson in his _Preface to
Shakespeare_ (_Works_, v. 141) wrote:--'Dr. Warburton's chief assailants
are the authors of _The Canons of Criticism_, and of _The Revisal of
Shakespeare's Text_.... The one stings like a fly, sucks a little blood,
takes a gay flutter and returns for more; the other bites like a
viper.... When I think on one with his confederates, I remember the
danger of Coriolanus, who was afraid that "girls with spits, and boys
with stones, should slay him in puny battle;" when the other crosses my
imagination, I remember the prodigy in _Macbeth_: