Life of Johnson Volume II Part 72

'To his first state let him return with speed, Who sees how far the joys he left exceed His present choice.' FRANCIS.

Malone says that 'Walpole, after he ceased to be minister, endeavoured to amuse his mind with reading. But one day when Mr. Welbore Ellis was in his library, he heard him say, with tears in his eyes, after having taken up several books and at last thrown away a folio just taken down from a shelf, "Alas! it is all in vain; _I cannot read_."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 379. Lord Eldon, after his retirement, said to an inn-keeper who was thinking of giving up business:--'Believe me, for I speak from experience, when a man who has been much occupied through life arrives at having nothing to do, he is very apt not to know what to do _with himself_.' Later on, he said:--'It was advice given by me in the spirit of that Princ.i.p.al of Brasenose, who, when he took leave of young men quitting college, used to say to them, "Let me give you one piece of advice, _Cave de resignationibus_." And very good advice too.'

Twiss's _Eldon_, iii. 246.

[997] See _post_, April 10, 1775. He had but lately begun to visit London. 'Such was his constant apprehension of the small-pox, that he lived for twenty years within twenty miles of London, without visiting it more than once.' At the age of thirty-five he was inoculated, and henceforth was oftener in town. Campbell's _British Poets_, p. 569.

[998] Mr. S. Raymond, Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, published in Sydney in 1854 the _Diary of a Visit to England in 1775. by an Irishman_ (_The Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell_,) _with Notes_.

The MS., the editor says, was discovered behind an old press in one of the offices of his Court. The name of the writer nowhere appears in the MS. It is clear, however, that if it is not a forgery, the author was Campbell. In the _Edinburgh Review_ for Oct., 1859, its authenticity is examined, and is declared to be beyond a doubt. Lord Macaulay aided the Reviewer in his investigation. _Ib_ p. 323. He could scarcely, however, have come to his task with a mind altogether free from bias, for the editor 'has contrived,' we are told, 'to expose another of Mr. Croker's blunders.' Faith in him cannot be wrong who proves that Croker is not in the right. The value of this _Diary_ is rated too highly by the Reviewer. The Master of Balliol College has pointed out to me that it adds but very little to Johnson's sayings. So far as he is concerned, we are told scarcely anything of mark that we did not know already. This makes the Master doubt its genuineness. I have noticed one suspicious pa.s.sage. An account is given of a dinner at Mr. Thrale's on April 1, at which Campbell met Murphy, Boswell, and Baretti. 'Johnson's _bons mots_ were retailed in such plenty that they, like a surfeit, could not lie upon my memory.' In one of the stories told by Murphy, Johnson is made to say, 'd.a.m.n the rascal.' Murphy would as soon have made the Archbishop of Canterbury swear as Johnson; much sooner the Archbishop of York. It was Murphy 'who paid him the highest compliment that ever was paid to a layman, by asking his pardon for repeating some oaths in the course of telling a story' (_post_, April 12, 1776). Even supposing that at this time he was ignorant of his character, though the supposition is a wild one, he would at once have been set right by Boswell and the Thrales (_post_, under March 15, 1776). It is curious, that this anecdote imputing profanity to Johnson is not quoted by the Edinburgh reviewer.

On the whole I think that the _Diary_ is genuine, and accordingly I have quoted it more than once.

[999] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 173) says that Johnson spoke of Browne as 'of all conversers the most delightful with whom he ever was in company.' Pope's bathos, in his lines to Murray:--

'Graced as thou art with all the power of words, So known, so honoured, at the House of Lords,'

was happily parodied by Browne:--

'Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks, And he has chambers in the King's Bench Walks.'

Pattison's _Satires of Pope_, pp. 57, 134. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 5.

[1000] Horace Walpole says of Beckford's Bribery Bill of 1768:--'Grenville, to flatter the country gentlemen, who can ill afford to combat with great lords, nabobs, commissaries, and West Indians, declaimed in favour of the bill.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iii. 159.

[1001] See _ante_, ii. 167, where he said much the same. Another day, however, he agreed that a landlord ought to give leases to his tenants, and not 'wish to keep them in a wretched dependance on his will. "It is a man's duty," he said, "to extend comfort and security among as many people as he can. He should not wish to have his tenants mere _Ephemerae_--mere beings of an hour."' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct.

10, 1773.

[1002] 'Thomas Hickey is now best remembered by a characteristic portrait of his friend Tom Davies, engraved with Hickey's name to it.'

P. CUNNINGHAM.

[1003] See _ante_, ii. 92. In the _Life of Pope_ (_Works_, viii. 302), Johnson says that 'the shafts of satire were directed in vain against Cibber, being repelled by his impenetrable impudence.' Pope speaks of Gibber's 'impenetrability.' Elwin's _Pope_, ix. 231.

[1004] He alludes perhaps to a note on the _Dunciad_, ii, 140, in which it is stated that 'the author has celebrated even Cibber himself (presuming him to be the author of the _Careless Husband_).' See _post_, May 15, 1776, note.

[1005] See _ante_, ii. 32.

[1006] Burke told Malone that 'Hume, in compiling his _History_, did not give himself a great deal of trouble in examining records, &c.; and that the part he most laboured at was the reign of King Charles II, for whom he had an unaccountable partiality.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 368.

[1007] Yet Johnson (_Works_, vii. 177) wrote of Otway, who was nine years old when Charles II. came to the throne, and who outlived him by only a few weeks:--'He had what was in those times the common reward of loyalty; he lived and died neglected.' Hawkins (_Life_, p. 51) says that he heard Johnson 'speak of Dr. Hodges who, in the height of the Great Plague of 1665, continued in London, and was almost the only one of his profession that had the courage to oppose his art to the spreading of the contagion. It was his hard fate, a short time after, to die in prison for debt in Ludgate. Johnson related this to us with the tears ready to start from his eyes; and, with great energy, said, "Such a man would not have been suffered to perish in these times."'

[1008] Johnson in 1742 said that William III. 'was arbitrary, insolent, gloomy, rapacious, and brutal; that he was at all times disposed to play the tyrant; that he had, neither in great things nor in small, the manners of a gentleman; that he was capable of gaining money by mean artifices, and that he only regarded his promise when it was his interest to keep it.' _Works_, vi. 6. Nearly forty years later, in his _Life of Rowe_ (_ib_. vii. 408), he aimed a fine stroke at that King.

'The fas.h.i.+on of the time,' he wrote, 'was to acc.u.mulate upon Lewis all that can raise horrour and detestation; and whatever good was withheld from him, that it might not be thrown away, was bestowed upon King William.' Yet in the _Life of Prior_ (_ib_. viii. 4) he allowed him great merit. 'His whole life had been action, and none ever denied him the resplendent qualities of steady resolution and personal courage.'

See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 24, 1773.

[1009] 'The fact of suppressing the will is indubitably true,' wrote Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 142). 'When the news arrived of the death of George I, my father carried the account from Lord Townshend to the then Prince of Wales. The Council met as soon as possible. There Archbishop Wake, with whom one copy of the will had been deposited, advanced, and delivered the will to the King, who put it into his pocket, and went out of Council without opening it, the Archbishop not having courage or presence of mind to desire it to be read, as he ought to have done. I was once talking to the late Lady Suffolk, the former mistress, on that extraordinary event. She said, "I cannot justify the deed to the legatees; but towards his father, the late King was justifiable, for George I. had burnt two wills made in favour of George II."'

[1010] 'Charles II. by his affability and politeness made himself the idol of the nation, which he betrayed and sold.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 7.

[1011] 'It was maliciously circulated that George was indifferent to his own succession, and scarcely willing to stretch out a hand to grasp the crown within his reach.' c.o.xe's _Memoirs of Walpole_, i. 57.

[1012] Plin. _Epist_. lib. ii. ep. 3. BOSWELL.

[1013] Mr. Davies was here mistaken. Corelli never was in England.

BURNEY.

[1014] Mr. Croker is wrong in saying that the Irishman in Mrs. Thrale's letter of May 16, 1776 (_Piozzi Letters_, i. 329), is Dr. Campbell. The man mentioned there had never met Johnson, though she wrote more than a year after this dinner at Davies's. She certainly quotes one of 'Dr.

C-l's phrases,' but she might also have quoted Shakspeare. I have no doubt that Mrs. Thrale's Irishman was a Mr. Musgrave (_post_, under June 16, 1784, note), who is humorously described in Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 83. Since writing this note I have seen that the Edinburgh reviewer (Oct. 1859, p. 326) had come to the same conclusion.

[1015] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 26, 1773, where Johnson said that 'he did not approve of a Judge's calling himself Farmer Burnett, and going about with a little round hat.'

[1016] 'If all the employments of life were crowded into the time which it [sic] really occupied, perhaps a few weeks, days, or hours would be sufficient for its accomplishment, so far as the mind was engaged in the performance.' _The Rambler_, No. 8.

[1017] Johnson certainly did, who had a mind stored with knowledge, and teeming with imagery: but the observation is not applicable to writers in general. BOSWELL. See _post_, April 20, 1783.

[1018] See _ante_, i. 358.

[1019] See ante, i. 306.

[1020] There has probably been some mistake as to the terms of this supposed extraordinary contract, the recital of which from hearsay afforded Johnson so much play for his sportive acuteness. Or if it was worded as he supposed, it is so strange that I should conclude it was a joke. Mr. Gardner, I am a.s.sured, was a worthy and a liberal man.

BOSWELL. Thurlow, when Attorney-General, had been counsel for the Donaldsons, in the appeal before the House of Lords on the Right of Literary Property (_ante_, i. 437, and ii. 272). In his argument 'he observed (exemplifying his observations by several cases) that the booksellers had not till lately ever concerned themselves about authors.' _Gent. Mag_. for 1774, p. 51.

[1021] 'The booksellers of London are denominated _the trade_' (_post_, April 15, 1778, note).

[1022] _Bibliopole_ is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_.

[1023] The Literary Club. See _ante_, p. 330, note 1. Mr. Croker says that the records of the Club show that, after the first few years, Johnson very rarely attended, and that he and Boswell never met there above seven or eight times. It may be observed, he adds, how very rarely Boswell records the conversation at the club, Except in one instance (_post_, April, 3, 1778), he says, Boswell confines his report to what Johnson or himself may have said. That this is not strictly true is shewn by his report of the dinner recorded above, where we find reported remarks of Beauclerk and Gibbon. Seven meetings besides this are mentioned by Boswell. See _ante_, ii. 240, 255, 318, 330; and _post_, April 3, 1778, April 16, 1779, and June 22, 1784. Of all but the last there is some report, however brief, of something said. When Johnson was not present, Boswell would have nothing to record in this book.

[1024] _Travels through Germany, &c_., 1756-7.

[1025] _Travels through Holland, &c. Translated from the French_, 1743.

[1026] See _post_, March 24, 1776, and May 17, 1778.

[1027] _Description of the East_, 1743-5.

[1028] Johnson had made the same remark, and Boswell had mentioned Leandro Alberti, when they were talking in an inn in the Island of Mull.

Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 14, 1773.

[1029] Addison does not mention where this epitaph, which has eluded a very diligent inquiry, is found. MALONE. I have found it quoted in old Howell. 'The Italian saying may be well applied to poor England:--"I was well--would be better--took physic--and died."' _Lett_. Jan. 20, 1647.

CROKER. It is quoted by Addison in _The Spectator_, No. 25:--'This letter puts me in mind of an Italian epitaph written on the monument of a Valetudinarian: _Stavo ben, ma per star meglio sto qui_, which it is impossible to translate.'

[1030] Lord Chesterfield, as Mr. Croker points out, makes the same observation in one of his _Letters to his Son_ (ii. 351). Boswell, however, does not get it from him, for he had said the same in the _Hebrides_, six months before the publication of Chesterfield's _Letters_. Addison, in the preface to his _Remarks_, says:--'Before I entered on my voyage I took care to refresh my memory among the cla.s.sic authors, and to make such collections out of them as I might afterwards have occasion for.'

[1031] See ante, ii. 156.

[1032] 'It made an impression on the army that cannot be well imagined by those who saw it not. The whole army, and at last all people both in city and country were singing it perpetually, and perhaps never had so slight a thing so great an effect.' b.u.met's Own Time, ed. 1818, ii. 430.

In Tristram Shandy, vol. i. chap. 21, when Mr. Shandy advanced one of his hypotheses:--'My uncle Toby,' we read, 'would never offer to answer this by any other kind of argument than that of whistling half-a-dozen bars of Lilliburlero.'

[1033] See ante, ii. 66.