Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 70

_The New Foundling Hospital for Wit_, i. 129. According to Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, i. 217), 'Dr. Goldsmith declared, in the heat of his admiration of these _Cross Readings_, it would have given him more pleasure to have been the author of them than of all the works he had ever published of his own.' Horace Walpole (Letters, v. 30) writes:-- 'Have you seen that delightful paper composed out of sc.r.a.ps in the newspapers? I laughed till I cried. I mean the paper that says:--

"This day his Majesty will go in great state to fifteen notorious common prost.i.tutes."'

[997] One of these gentlemen was probably Mr. Musgrave (_ante_, ii. 343, note 2), who, says Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 295), when 'once he was singularly warm about Johnson's writing the lives of our famous prose authors, getting up and entreating him to set about the work immediately, he coldly replied, "Sit down, Sir."' Miss Burney says that 'the incense he paid Dr. Johnson by his solemn manner of listening, by the earnest reverence with which he eyed him, and by a theatric start of admiration every time he spoke, joined to the Doctor's utter insensibility to all these tokens, made me find infinite difficulty in keeping my countenance.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 85. The other gentleman was perhaps Dr. Wharton. _Ante_, ii. 41, note 1.

[998] Probably Dr. Beattie. The number of letters in his name agrees with the asterisks given a few lines below. _Ante_, iii. 339, note 1, and _post_, p. 330.

[999] Johnson, in his _Dictionary_, defines _conge d'elire_ as _the king's permission royal to a dean and chapter in time of vacation, to choose a bishop._ When Dr. Hampden was made Bishop of Hereford in 1848, the Dean resisted the appointment. H. C. Robinson records, on the authority of the Bishop's Secretary (_Diary_, iii. 311), that 'at the actual confirmation in Bow Church the scene was quite ludicrous. After the judge had told the opposers that he could not hear them, the citation for opposers to come forward was repeated, at which the people present laughed out, as at a play.'

[1000] This has been printed in other publications, 'fall _to the ground_.' But Johnson himself gave me the true expression which he had used as above; meaning that the recommendation left as little choice in the one case as the other. BOSWELL. One of the 'other publications is Hawkins's edition of Johnson's _Works_. See in it vol. xi. p. 216.

[1001] They are published in vol. xi. of Hawkins's edition of Johnson's _Works_. 1787, and are often quoted in my notes. It should be remembered that Steevens is not trustworthy. See _ante_, iii. 281, and iv. 178.

[1002] See _ante_, ii. 96.

[1003] See _ante_, p. iii.

[1004] _She Stoops to Conquer_ was first acted on March 15, 1773. The King of Sardinia had died on Feb. 20. _Gent. Mag_. 1773, pp. 149, 151.

[1005] Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 170) describes how, in 1780, she went to one of Mrs. Ord's a.s.semblies at a time when 'the mourning for some foreign Wilhelmina Jaquelina was not over. Every human creature was in deep mourning, and I, poor I, all gorgeous in scarlet. Even Jacobite Johnson was in deep mourning.'

[1006] In the tenth edition of the _Rambler_, published in 1784, the entry is still found:--'Milton, Mr. John, remarks on his versification.'

In like manner we find:--'Shakspeare, Mr. William, his eminent success in tragi-comedy;' 'Spenser, Mr. Edmund, some imitations of his diction censured;' 'Cowley, Mr. Abraham, a pa.s.sage in his writing ill.u.s.trated.'

[1007] See _ante_, p. 116.

[1008] See _ante_, iii. 425, note 3.

[1009] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 571) writes:--'The plan for Johnson's visiting the Continent became so well known, that, as a lady then resident at Rome afterwards informed me, his arrival was anxiously expected throughout Italy.'

[1010] Edward Lord Thurlow. BOSWELL.

[1011] See _ante_, p. 179.

[1012] In 1778.

[1013] 'With Lord Thurlow, while he was at the bar, Johnson was well acquainted. He said to Mr. Murphy twenty years ago, "Thurlow is a man of such vigour of mind that I never knew I was to meet him, but--I was going to tell a falsehood; I was going to say I was afraid of him, and that would not be true, for I was never afraid of any man--but I never knew that I was to meet Thurlow, but I knew I had something to encounter."' _Monthly Review_ for 1787, lxxvi. 382. Murphy, no doubt, was the writer. Lord Campbell (_Lives of the Chancellors_, ed. 1846, v.621) quotes from 'the Diary of a distinguished political character' an account of a meeting between Thurlow and Horne Tooke, in 1801. 'Tooke evidently came forward for a display, and as I considered his powers of conversation as surpa.s.sing those of any person I had ever seen (in point of skill and dexterity, and if necessary in _lying_), so I took for granted old grumbling Thurlow would be obliged to lower his top-sail to him--but it seemed as if the very _look_ and _voice_ of Thurlow scared him out of his senses from the first moment. So Tooke tried to recruit himself by wine, and, though not generally a drinker, was very drunk, but all would not do.'

[1014] It is strange that Sir John Hawkins should have related that the application was made by Sir Joshua Reynolds, when he could so easily have been informed of the truth by inquiring of Sir Joshua. Sir John's carelessness to ascertain facts is very remarkable. BOSWELL.

[1015] There is something dreadful in the thought of the old man quietly going on with his daily life within a few hundred yards of this shocking scene of slaughter, this 'legal ma.s.sacre,' to use his own words (_ante_, p. 188, note 3). England had a kind of Reign of Terror of its own; little thought of at the time or remembered since. Twenty-four men were sentenced to death at the Old Bailey Sessions that ended on April 28. On June 16 nine of these had the sentence commuted; the rest were hanged this day. Among these men was not a single murderer. Twelve of them had committed burglary, two a street robbery, and one had personated another man's name, with intent to receive his wages. _Ann. Reg_. xxvii, 193, and _Gent. Mag_. liv. 379, 474. The _Gent. Mag_. recording the sentences, remarks:--'Convicts under sentence of death in Newgate and the gaols throughout the kingdom increase so fast, that, were they all to be executed, England would soon be marked among the nations as the _b.l.o.o.d.y Country_.' In the spring a.s.sizes the returns are given for ten towns. There were 88 capital convictions, of which 21 were at Winchester. _Ib_. 224. In the summer a.s.sizes and at the Old Bailey Sessions for July there were 149 capital convictions. At Maidstone a man on being sentenced 'gave three loud cheers, upon which the judge gave strict orders for his being chained to the floor of the dungeon.' _Ib_.

pp. 311, 633. The hangman was to grow busier yet. This increase in the number of capital punishments was attributed by Romilly in great part to Madan's _Thoughts on Executive Justice_; 'a small tract, in which, by a mistaken application of the maxim "that the certainty of punishment is more efficacious than its severity for the prevention of crimes," he absurdly insisted on the expediency of rigidly enforcing, in every instance, our penal code, sanguinary and barbarous as it was. In 1783, the year before the book was published, there were executed in London only 51 malefactors; in 1785, the year after the book was published, there were executed 97; and it was recently after the publication of the book that was exhibited a spectacle unseen in London for a long course of years before, the execution of nearly 20 criminals at a time.' _Life of Romilly_, i. 89. Madan's Tract was published in the winter of 1784-5.

Boswell's fondness for seeing executions is shewn, _ante_, ii. 93.

[1016] See _ante_, ii. 82, 104; iii. 290; and v. 7l.

[1017] A friend of mine happened to be pa.s.sing by a _field congregation_ in the environs of London, when a Methodist preacher quoted this pa.s.sage with triumph. BOSWELL. On Dec. 26, 1784, John Wesley preached the condemned criminals' sermon to forty-seven who were under sentence of death. He records:--'The power of the Lord was eminently present, and most of the prisoners were in tears. A few days after, twenty of them died at once, five of whom died in peace. I could not but greatly approve of the spirit and behaviour of Mr. Villette, the Ordinary; and I rejoiced to hear that it was the same on all similar occasions.'

Wesley's _Journal_, ed. 1827, iv. 287.

[1018] I trust that THE CITY OF LONDON, now happily in unison with THE COURT, will have the justice and generosity to obtain preferment for this Reverend Gentleman, now a worthy old servant of that magnificent Corporation. BOSWELL. In like manner, Boswell in 1768 praised the Rev.

Mr. Moore, Mr. Villette's predecessor. 'Mr. Moore, the Ordinary of Newgate, discharged his duty with much earnestness and a fervour for which I and all around me esteemed and loved him. Mr. Moore seems worthy of his office, which, when justly considered, is a very important one.'

_London Mag._ 1783, p. 204. For the quarrel between the City and the Court, see _ante_, iii. 201.

[1019] See _ante_, i. 387.

[1020] Knox in _Winter Evenings_, No. xi. (_Works_, ii. 348), attacks Johnson's biographers for lowering his character by publis.h.i.+ng his private conversation. 'Biography,' he complains, 'is every day descending from its dignity.' See _ante_, i. 222, note 1.

[1021] _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 256.

[1022] Johnson wrote on April 15:--'I am still very weak, though my appet.i.te is keen and my digestion potent. ... I now think and consult to-day what I shall eat to-morrow. This disease likewise will, I hope, be cured.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 362. Beattie, who dined with Johnson on June 27, wrote:--'Wine, I think, would do him good, but he cannot be prevailed on to drink it. He has, however, a voracious appet.i.te for food. I verily believe that on Sunday last he ate as much to dinner as I have done in all for these ten days past.' Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 315. It was said that Beattie latterly indulged somewhat too much in wine. _Ib_. p. 432.

[1023] Horace Walpole wrote in April 1750 (_Letters_, ii. 206):--'There is come from France a Madame Bocage who has translated Milton: my Lord Chesterfield prefers the copy to the original; but that is not uncommon for him to do, who is the patron of bad authors and bad actors. She has written a play too, which was d.a.m.ned, and worthy my lord's approbation.'

It was this lady who bade her footman blow into the spout of the tea-pot. _Ante_, ii. 403. Dr. J. H. Burton writes of her in his _Life of Hume_, ii. 213:--'The wits must praise her bad poetry if they frequented her house. "Elle etait d'une figure aimable," says Grimm, "elle est bonne femme; elle est riche; elle pouvait fixer chez elle les gens d'esprit et de bonne compagnie, sans les mettre dans l'embarras de lui parler avec peu de sincerite de sa Colombiade ou de ses Amazones."'

[1024] It is the sea round the South Pole that she describes in her _Elegy_ (not _Ode_). The description begins:--

'While o'er the deep in many a dreadful form, The giant Danger howls along the storm, _Furling the iron sails with numbed hands, Firm on the deck the great Adventurer stands;_ Round glitt'ring mountains hear the billows rave, And the vast ruin thunder on the wave.'

In the _Gent. Mag._ 1793, p. 197, were given extracts abusive of Johnson from some foolish letters that pa.s.sed between Miss Seward and Hayley, a poet her equal in feebleness. Boswell, in his _Corrections and Additions to the First Edition_ (_ante_, i.10), corrected an error into which he had been led by Miss Seward (_ante_, i.92, note 2). She, in the _Gent.

Mag._ for 1793, p.875, defended herself and attacked him. His reply is found on p.1009. He says:--'As my book was to be a _real history_, and not a _novel_, it was necessary to suppress all erroneous particulars, however entertaining.' (_Ante_, ii 467, note 4.) He continues:--'So far from having any hostile disposition towards this Lady, I have, in my _Life of Dr. Johnson_...quoted a compliment paid by him to one of her poetical pieces; and I have withheld his opinion of herself, thinking that she might not like it. I am afraid it has reached her by some other means; and thus we may account for various attacks by her on her venerable townsman since his decease...What are we to think of the sc.r.a.ps of letters between her and Mr. Hayley, impotently attempting to undermine the n.o.ble pedestal on which the publick opinion has placed Dr. Johnson?'

[1025] See _ante_, i.265, and iv. 174.

[1026] 'Johnson said he had once seen Mr. Stanhope at Dodsley's shop, and was so much struck with his awkward manners and appearance that he could not help asking Mr. Dodsley who he was.' Johnson's _Works_, (1787) xi.209.

[1027] Chesterfield was Secretary of State from Nov. 1746 to Feb. 1748.

His letters to his son extend from 1739 to 1768.

[1028] Foote had taken off Lord Chesterfield in _The Cozeners_. Mrs.

Aircastle trains her son Toby in the graces. She says to her husband:--'Nothing but grace! I wish you would read some late _Posthumous Letters_; you would then know the true value of grace.' Act ii. sc. 2.

[1029] See _ante_, p.78, note 1.

[1030] See a pamphlet ent.i.tled _Remarks on the Characters of the Court of Queen Anne_, included in Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, vi. 163.

[1031] Carleton, according to the _Memoirs_, made his first service in the navy in 1672--seventeen years before the siege of Derry. There is no mention of this siege in the book.

[1032] 'He had obtained, by his long service, some knowledge of the practic part of an engineer.' Preface to the _Memoirs_.

[1033] Nearly 200 pages in Bohn's edition. See _ante_, i. 71, for Johnson's rapid reading.

[1034] Lord Mahon (_War of the Succession in Spain_, Appendix, p. 131) proves that a Captain Carleton really served. 'It is not impossible,' he says, 'that the MS. may have been intrusted to De Foe for the purpose of correction or revision...The _Memoirs_ are most strongly marked with internal proofs of authenticity.' Lockhart (_Life of Scott_, iii. 84) says:--'It seems to be now pretty generally believed that Carleton's _Memoirs_ were among the numberless fabrications of De Foe; but in this case (if the fact indeed be so), as in that of his _Cavalier_, he no doubt had before him the rude journal of some officer.' Dr. Burton (_Reign of Queen Anne_ ii. 173) says that MSS. in the British Museum disprove 'the possibility of De Foe's authors.h.i.+p.'

[1035] Lord Chesterfield (_Letters_, ii. 109) writing to his son on Nov.

29, 1748, says of Mr. Eliot:--'Imitate that application of his, which has made him know all thoroughly, and to the bottom. He does not content himself with the surface of knowledge; but works in the mine for it, knowing that it lies deep.'

[1036] The Houghton Collection was sold in 1779 by the third Earl of Orford, to the Empress of Russia for 40,555. (Walpole's _Letters_, vii.

227, note 1.)