Life of Johnson Volume II Part 53

[310] See _post_, June 28, 1777, note.

[311] Laceration was properly a term of surgery; hence the italics. See _post_, Jan. 20, 1780.

[312] See _post_, April 15, 1778.

[313] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 12, 1773.

[314] He bids us pray 'For faith that panting for a happier seat, Counts death kind nature's signal of retreat.'

[315]

'To die is landing on some silent sh.o.r.e, Where billows never beat, nor tempests roar, Ere well we feel the friendly stroke, 'tis o'er.'

GARTH. Quoted in Johnson's _Works_, vi. 61. Bacon, if he was the author of _An Essay on Death_, says, 'I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.' Spedding's _Bacon_, vi. 600. Cicero (_Tuscul. Quaest_. i. 8) quotes Epicharmus's saying:--'Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihil aestimo.'

[316] See _post_, beginning of 1773.

[317] See _post_, April 17, 1778.

[318] Perhaps _on_ is a misprint for _or_.

[319] Johnson says of Blackmore (_Works_, viii. 36) that 'he is one of those men whose lot it has been to be much oftener mentioned by enemies than by friends.'

[320] This account Johnson says he had from an eminent bookseller, who had it from Ambrose Philips the poet. 'The relation of Philips,' he adds, 'I suppose was true; but when all reasonable, all credible allowance is made for this friendly revision, the author will still retain an ample dividend of praise.... Correction seldom effects more than the suppression of faults: a happy line, or a single elegance, may perhaps be added, but of a large work the general character must always remain.' _Works_, viii. 41.

[321] An acute correspondent of the _European Magazine_, April, 1792, has completely exposed a mistake which has been unaccountably frequent in ascribing these lines to Blackmore, notwithstanding that Sir Richard Steele, in that very popular work, _The Spectator_, mentions them as written by the Authour of The British Princes, the Honourable Edward Howard. The correspondent above mentioned, shews this mistake to be so inveterate, that not only _I_ defended the lines as Blackmore's, in the presence of Dr. Johnson, without any contradiction or doubt of their authenticity, but that the Reverend Mr. Whitaker has a.s.serted in print, that he understands they were _suppressed_ in the late edition or editions of Blackmore. 'After all (says this intelligent writer) it is not unworthy of particular observation, that these lines so often quoted do not exist either in Blackmore or Howard.' In _The British Princes_, 8vo. 1669, now before me, p. 96, they stand thus:--

'A vest as admired Voltiger had on, Which, from this Island's foes, his grandsire won, Whose artful colour pa.s.s'd the Tyrian dye, Oblig'd to triumph in this legacy.'

It is probable, I think, that some wag, in order to make Howard still more ridiculous than he really was, has formed the couplet as it now circulates. BOSWELL. Swift in his _Poetry: A Rhapsody_, thus joins Howard and Blackmore together:--

'Remains a difficulty still, To purchase fame by writing ill.

From Flecknoe down to Howard's time How few have reached the low sublime!

For when our high-born Howard died, Blackmore alone his place supplied.'

_Swift's Works_ (1803), xi. 296.

[322] Boswell seems to have borrowed the notion from _The Spectator_, No. 43, where Steele, after saying that the poet blundered because he was 'vivacious as well as stupid,' continues:--'A fool of a colder const.i.tution would have staid to have flayed the Pict, and made buff of his skin for the wearing of the conqueror.'

[323] See _ante_, ii. 100, note 1.

[324] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 97) tells how one day at Streatham 'when he was musing over the fire, a young gentleman called to him suddenly, and I suppose he thought disrespectfully, in these words:--"Mr.

Johnson, would you advise me to marry?" "I would advise no man to marry, Sir," returns for answer in a very angry tone Dr. Johnson, "who is not likely to propagate understanding," and so left the room. Our companion looked confounded, and I believe had scarce recovered the consciousness of his own existence, when Johnson came back, and drawing his chair among us, with altered looks and a softened voice, joined in the general chat, insensibly led the conversation to the subject of marriage, where he laid himself out in a dissertation so useful, so elegant, so founded on the true knowledge of human life, and so adorned with beauty of sentiment, that no one ever recollected the offence except to rejoice in its consequences.' This 'young gentleman,' according to Mr. Hayward (Mrs. Piozzi's _Auto_. i. 69), was Sir John Lade, the hero of the ballad which Johnson recited on his death-bed. For other instances of Johnson's seeking a reconciliation, see _post_, May 7, 1773, and April 12 and May 8, 1778.

[325] '_The False Alarm_, his first and favourite pamphlet, was written at our house between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock on Thursday night. We read it to Mr. Thrale when he came very late home from the House of Commons.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 41. See also _post_, Nov. 26, 1774, where Johnson says that '_The Patriot_ was called for by my political friends on Friday, was written on Sat.u.r.day.'

[326] Wilkes was first elected member for Middles.e.x at the General Election of March, 1768. He did not take his seat, having been thrown into prison before Parliament met. On Feb. 3, 1769, he was declared incapable of being elected, and a new writ was ordered. On Feb. 16 he was again elected, and without opposition. His election was again declared void. On March 16 he was a third time elected, and without opposition. His election was again declared void. On April 13 he was a fourth time elected by 1143 votes against 296 given for Colonel Luttrell. On the 14th the poll taken for him was declared null and void, and on the 15th, Colonel Luttrell was declared duly elected. _Parl.

Hist_. xvi. 437, and Almon's _Wilkes_, iv. 4. See _post_, Oct. 12, 1779.

[327] The resolution of expulsion was carried on Feb. 17, 1769. _Parl.

Hist_. xvi. 577. It was expunged on May 3, 1782. _Ib_ xxii. 1407.

[328] In the original it is not _rulers_, but _railers_. Johnson's _Works_, vi. 176.

[329] How slight the change of system was is shown by a pa.s.sage in Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 388. Mr. Forster mentions a 'memorial in favour of the most worthless of hack-partizans, Shebbeare, which obtained for him his pension of 200 a year. It is signed by fifteen members of the House of Commons, and it asks for a pension "that he may be enabled to pursue that laudable _inclination which he has_ of manifesting his zeal for the service of his Majesty and his Government"; in other words, that a rascal shall be bribed to support a corrupt administration.' Horace Walpole, in 1757 (_Letters_, iii. 54), described Shebbeare as one 'who made a pious resolution of writing himself into a place or the pillory, but who miscarried in both views.' He added in a note, 'he did write himself into a pillory before the conclusion of that reign, and into a pension at the beginning of the next, for one and the same kind of merit--writing against King William and the Revolution.'

See also _post_, end of May, 1781.

[330] Johnson could scarcely be soothed by lines such as the following:--

'Never wilt thou retain the h.o.a.rded store, In virtue affluent, but in metal poor; * * * * *

Great is thy prose; great thy poetic strain, Yet to dull c.o.xcombs are they great in vain.

[331] Stockdale, who was born in 1736 and died in 1811, wrote _Memoirs of his Life_--a long, dull book, but containing a few interesting anecdotes of Johnson. He thought himself, and the world also, much ill-used by the publishers, when they pa.s.sed him over and chose Johnson to edit the _Lives of the Poets_. He lodged both in Johnson's Court and in Bolt Court, but preserved little good-will for his neighbour.

Johnson, in the _Life of Waller_ (_Works_, vii. 194), quoting from Stockdale's _Life_ of that poet, calls him 'his last ingenious biographer.' I. D'Israeli says that 'the bookseller Flexney complained that whenever this poet came to town, it cost him 20. Flexney had been the publisher of Churchill's _Works_, and never forgetting the time when he published _The Rosciad_, he was speculating all his life for another Churchill and another quarto poem. Stockdale usually brought him what he wanted, and Flexney found the workman, but never the work.' _Calamities of Authors_, ed. 1812, ii. 314.

[332] 'I believe most men may review all the lives that have pa.s.sed within their observation without remembering one efficacious resolution, or being able to tell a single instance of a course of practice suddenly changed in consequence of a change of opinion, or an establishment of determination.' _Idler_, No. 27. 'These sorrowful meditations fastened upon Ra.s.selas's mind; he pa.s.sed four months in resolving to lose no more time in idle resolves.' _Ra.s.selas_, ch. iv.

[333] _Pr. and Med_. p. 95. [p. 101.] BOSWELL.

[334] See _ante_, i. 368.

[335] The pa.s.sage remains unrevised in the second edition.

[336] Johnson had suffered greatly from rheumatism this year, as well as from other disorders. He mentions 'spasms in the stomach which disturbed me for many years, and for two past hara.s.sed me almost to distraction.'

These, however, by means of a strong remedy, had at Easter nearly ceased. 'The pain,' he adds, 'harra.s.ses me much; yet many leave the disease perhaps in a much higher degree, with want of food, fire, and covering, which I find also grievous, with all the succours that riches kindness can buy and give.' (He was staying at Mr. Thrale's) _Pr. and Med_. pp. 92-95. 'Shall I ever,' he asks on Easter Day, 'receive the Sacrament with tranquility? Surely the time will come.' _Ib_ p. 99.

[337] Son of the learned Mrs. Grierson, who was patronised by the late Lord Granville, and was the editor of several of the Cla.s.sicks. BOSWELL.

[338]

'Pontific.u.m libros, annosa volumina vatum, Dict.i.tet Albano Musas in monte locutas.'

'Then swear transported that the sacred Nine p.r.o.nounced on Alba's top each hallowed line.'

FRANCIS. Horace, _Epis_. II. i. 26.

[339] See _ante_, i. 131, where Boswell says that 'Johnson afterwards honestly acknowledged the merit of Walpole.'

[340] See _post_, May 15, 1783.

[341] 'His acquaintance was sought by persons of the first eminence in literature; and his house, in respect of the conversations there, became an academy.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 329. See _ante_, i. 247, 350, note 3.

[342] Probably Madame de Boufflers. See _post_, under November 12, 1775.

[343] 'To talk in publick, to think in solitude, to read and hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of a scholar.' _Ra.s.selas_, ch. viii. Miss Burney mentions an amusing instance of a consultation by letter. 'The letter was dated from the Orkneys, and cost Dr. Johnson eighteen pence. The writer, a clergyman, says he labours under a most peculiar misfortune, for which he can give no account, and which is that, though he very often writes letters to his friends and others, he never gets any answers. He entreats, therefore, that Dr. Johnson will take this into consideration, and explain to him to what so strange a thing may be attributed.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 96.

[344] 'How he [Swift] spent the rest of his time, and how he employed his hours of study, has been inquired with hopeless curiosity. For who can give an account of another's studies? Swift was not likely to admit any to his privacies, or to impart a minute account of his business or his leisure.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 208.

[345] See _post_, March 31, 1772.