Life of Johnson Volume III Part 49

[187] In the year 1770, in _The False Alarm_, Johnson attacked Wilkes with more than 'some asperity.' 'The character of the man,' he wrote, 'I have no purpose to delineate. Lampoon itself would disdain to speak ill of him, of whom no man speaks well.' He called him 'a retailer of sedition and obscenity;' and he said:--'We are now disputing ... whether Middles.e.x shall be represented, or not, by a criminal from a gaol.'

_Works_, vi. 156, 169, 177. In _The North Briton_, No. xii, Wilkes, quoting Johnson's definition of a pensioner, asks:--'Is the said Mr.

Johnson a _dependant_? or is he _a slave of state, hired by a stipend to obey his master_? There is, according to him, no alternative.--As Mr.

Johnson has, I think, failed in this account, may I, after so great an authority, venture at a short definition of so intricate a word? A _pension_ then I would call _a gratuity during the pleasure of the Prince for services performed, or expected to be performed, to himself, or to the state_. Let us consider the celebrated Mr. _Johnson_, and a few other late pensioners in this light.'

[188] Boswell, in his _Letter to the People of Scotland_ (p. 70), mentions 'my old cla.s.sical companion, Wilkes;' and adds, 'with whom I pray you to excuse my keeping company, he is so pleasant.'

[189] When Johnson was going to Auchinleck, Boswell begged him, in talking with his father, 'to avoid three topicks as to which they differed very widely; whiggism, presbyterianism, and--Sir John Pringle.'

Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov 2, 1773. See also _ib_. Aug 24. 'Pringle was President of the Royal Society--"who sat in Newton's chair, And wonder'd how the devil he got there."' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 165. He was one of Franklin's friends (Franklin's _Memoirs_ iii. III), and so was likely to be uncongenial to Johnson.

[190] No 22. CROKER. At this house 'Johnson owned that he always found a good dinner.' _Post_, April 15, 1778.

[191] This has been circulated as if actually said by Johnson; when the truth is, it was only _supposed_ by me. BOSWELL.

[192] 'Don't let them be _patriots_,' he said to Mr. Hoole, when he asked him to collect a city Club. _Post_, April 6, 1781.

[193] See p. 7 of this volume. BOSWELL.

[194] 'Indifferent in his choice to sleep or die.' Addison's _Cato_, act v. sc. 1.

[195] See _ante_, i. 485.

[196] He was at this time 'employed by Congress as a private and confidential agent in England.' Dr. Franklin had arranged for letters to be sent to him, not by post but by private hand, under cover to his brother, Mr. Alderman Lee. Franklin's _Memoirs_, ii. 42, and iii. 415.

[197] When Wilkes the year before, during his mayoralty, had presented An Address, 'the King himself owned he had never seen so well-bred a Lord Mayor.' Walpole's _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 484.

[198] Johnson's _London, a Poem_, v. 145. BOSWELL--

'How when compet.i.tors like these contend, Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend.'

[199] See _ante_, ii. 154.

[200] Johnson had said much the same at a dinner in Edinburgh. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10, 1773. See _ante_, March 15, 1776, and _post_, Sept. 21, 1777.

[201] 'To convince any man against his will is hard, but to please him against his will is justly p.r.o.nounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities.' _The Rambler_, No. 93.

[202] Foote told me that Johnson said of him, 'For loud obstreperous broadfaced mirth, I know not his equal.' BOSWELL.

[203] In Farquhar's _Beaux-Stratagem_, Scrub thus describes his duties: --'Of a Monday I drive the coach, of a Tuesday I drive the plough, on Wednesday I follow the hounds, a Thursday I dun the tenants, on Friday I go to market, on Sat.u.r.day I draw warrants, and a Sunday I draw beer.'

Act iii. sc. 3.

[204] See _ante_, i. 393, note 1.

[205] See _post_, April 10, 1778, and April 24, 1779.

[206] See _ante_, i. 216, note 2.

[207] See _ante_, March 20, 1776, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22.

[208] Dryden had been dead but thirty-six years when Johnson came to London.

[209] 'Owen MacSwinny, a buffoon; formerly director of the play-house.'

Horace Walpole, _Letters_, i. 118. Walpole records one of his puns.

'Old Horace' had left the House of Commons to fight a duel, and at once 'returned, and was so little moved as to speak immediately upon the _Cambrick Bill_, which made Swinny say, "That it was a sign he was not _ruffled_."' _Ib_. p. 233. See also, _ib_. vi. 373 for one of his stories.

[210] A more amusing version of the story, is in _Johnsoniana_ (ed. 1836, p. 413) on the authority of Mr. Fowke. '"So Sir," said Johnson to Cibber, "I find you know [knew?] Mr. Dryden?" "Know him? O Lord! I was as well acquainted with him as if he had been my own brother." "Then you can tell me some anecdotes of him?" "O yes, a thousand! Why we used to meet him continually at a club at b.u.t.ton's. I remember as well as if it were but yesterday, that when he came into the room in winter time, he used to go and sit by the fire in one corner; and in summer time he would always go and sit in the window." "Thus, Sir," said Johnson, "what with the corner of the fire in winter and the window in summer, you see that I got _much_ information from Cibber of the manners and habits of Dryden.'" Johnson gives, in his _Life of Dryden_ (_Works_, vii. 300), the information that he got from Swinney and Cibber. Dr. Warton, who had written on Pope, found in one of the poet's female-cousins a still more ignorant survivor. 'He had been taught to believe that she could furnish him with valuable information.

Incited by all that eagerness which characterised him, he sat close to her, and enquired her consanguinity to Pope. "Pray, Sir," said she, "did not you write a book about my cousin Pope?" "Yes, madam." "They tell me t'was vastly clever. He wrote a great many plays, did not he?" "I have heard of only one attempt, Madam." "Oh no, I beg your pardon; that was Mr. Shakespeare; I always confound them."' Wooll's _Warton_, p. 394.

[211] Johnson told Malone that 'Cibber was much more ignorant even of matters relating to his own profession than he could well have conceived any man to be who had lived nearly sixty years with players, authors, and the most celebrated characters of the age.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 95. See _ante_, ii. 92.

[212] 'There are few,' wrote Goldsmith, 'who do not prefer a page of Montaigne or Colley Cibber, who candidly tell us what they thought of the world, and the world thought of them, to the more stately memoirs and transactions of Europe.' Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 43.

[213] _Essay on Criticism_, i. 66.

[214] 'Cibber wrote as bad Odes (as Garrick), but then Gibber wrote _The Careless Husband_, and his own _Life_, which both deserve immortality.' Walpole's _Letters_, v. 197. Pope (_Imitations of Horace_, II. i. 90), says:--

'All this may be; the people's voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of G.o.d.

To Gammer Gurton if it give the bays, And yet deny _The Careless Husband_ praise, Or say our fathers never broke a rule; Why then, I say, the public is a fool.'

See _ante_, April 6, 1775.

[215] See page 402 of vol. i. BOSWELL.

[216] Milton's _L'Allegro_, 1. 36.

[217] 'CATESBY. My Liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken. RICHARD. Off with his head. So much for Buckingham.' Colley Gibber's _Richard III_, iv. I.

[218] _Ars Poetica, i. 128.

[219] My very pleasant friend himself, as well as others _who remember old stories_, will no doubt be surprised, when I observe that _John Wilkes_ here shews himself to be of the WARBURTONIAN SCHOOL. It is nevertheless true, as appears from Dr. Hurd the Bishop of Worcester's very elegant commentary and notes on the '_Epistola ad Pisones_.'

It is necessary to a fair consideration of the question, that the whole pa.s.sage in which the words occur should be kept in view:

'Si quid inexpertum scenae committis, et audes Personam formare novam, servetur ad imum Qualis ab incepto processerit, et sibi constet.

Difficile est proprie communia dicere: tuque Rectius Iliac.u.m carmen deducis in actus, Quam si proferres ignota indictaque primus, Publica materies privati juris erit, si Non circa vilem patulumque moraberis...o...b..m, Nec verb.u.m verbo curabis reddere fidus Interpres; nee desilies imitator in artum Unde pedem proferre pudor vetat aut operis lex.'

The 'Commentary' thus ill.u.s.trates it: 'But the formation of quite _new characters_ is a work of great difficulty and hazard. For here there is no generally received and fixed _archetype_ to work after, but every one _judges_ of common right, according to the extent and comprehension of his own idea; therefore he advises to labour and refit _old characters and subjects_, particularly those made known and authorised by the practice of Homer and the Epick writers.'

The 'Note' is,

'_Difficile_ EST PROPRIE COMMUNIA DICERE.' Lambin's Comment is, '_Communia hoc loco appellat Horatius argumenta fabularum a nullo adhuc tractata: et ita, quae cuivis exposita sunt et in medio quodammodo posita, quasi vacua et a nemine occupata_.' And that this is the true meaning of _communia_ is evidently fixed by the words _ignota indictaque_, which are explanatory of it; so that the sense given it in the commentary is unquestionably the right one. Yet, notwithstanding the clearness of the case, a late critick has this strange pa.s.sage: '_Difficile quidem esse proprie communia dicere, hoc est, materiam vulgarem, notam et e medio pet.i.tam, ita immutare atque exornare, ut nova et scriptori propria videatur, ultra concedimus; et maximi procul dubio ponderis ista est observatio. Sed omnibus utrinque collatis, et tum difficilis, tum venusti, tam judicii quam ingenii ratione habita, major videtur esse gloria fabulam formare penitus novam, quam veterem, utcunque mutatam, de novo exhibere_. (Poet. Prael. v. ii. p. 164.) Where, having first put a wrong construction on the word _comnmnia_, he employs it to introduce an impertinent criticism. For where does the poet prefer the glory of refitting _old_ subjects to that of inventing new ones? The contrary is implied in what he urges about the superiour difficulty of the latter, from which he dissuades his countrymen, only in respect of their abilities and inexperience in these matters; and in order to cultivate in them, which is the main view of the Epistle, a spirit of correctness, by sending them to the old subjects, treated by the Greek writers.'

For my own part (with all deference for Dr. Hurd, who thinks the _case clear_,) I consider the pa.s.sage, '_Difficile est proprie communia dicere_,' to be a _crux_ for the criticks on Horace.

The explication which My Lord of Worcester treats with so much contempt, is nevertheless countenanced by authority which I find quoted by the learned Baxter in his edition of Horace: '_Difficile est proprie communia dicere_, h.e. res vulgares disertis verbis enarrare, vel humile thema c.u.m dignitate tractare. _Difficile est communes res propriis explicare verbis_. Vet. Schol.' I was much disappointed to find that the great critick, Dr. Bentley, has no note upon this very difficult pa.s.sage, as from his vigorous and illuminated mind I should have expected to receive more satisfaction than I have yet had.

_Sanadon_ thus treats of it: '_Proprie communia dicere; c'est a dire, qu'il n'est pas aise de former a ces personnages d'imagination, des caracteres particuliers et cependant vraisemblables. Comme l'on a ete le maitre de les former tels qu'on a voulu, les fautes que l'on fait en cela sont moins pardonnables. C'est pourquoi Horace conseille de prendre toujours des sujets connus tels que sont par exemple ceux que l'on peut tirer des poemes d'Homere_.'

And _Dacier_ observes upon it, '_Apres avoir marque les deux qualites qu'il faut donner aux personnages qu'on invente, il conseille aux Poetes tragiques, de n'user pas trop facilement de cette liberte quils ont d'en inventer, car il est tres difficile de reussir dans ces nouveaux caracteres. Il est mal aise, dit Horace_, de traiter proprement, _c'st a dire_ convenablement, _des_ sujets communs; _c'est a dire, des sujets inventes, et qui n'ont aucun fondement ni dans l'Histoire ni dans la Fable; et il les appelle_ communs, _parce qu'ils sont en disposition a tout le monde, et que tout le monde a le droit de les inventer, et qu'ils sont, comme on dit, au premier occupant_.' See his observations at large on this expression and the following.