Life of Johnson Volume I Part 58

197. BOSWELL. This letter shews how uncommon a thing a cold bath was.

Floyer, after recommending 'a general method of bleeding and purging'

before the patient uses cold bathing, continues, 'I have commonly cured the rickets by dipping children of a year old in the bath every morning; and this wonderful effect has encouraged me to dip four boys at Lichfield in the font at their baptism, and none have suffered any inconvenience by it.' (For mention of Floyer, see _ante_, p. 42, and _post_, March 27 and July 20, 1784.) Locke, in his _Treatise on Education_, had recommended cold bathing for children. Johnson, in his review of Lucas's _Essay on Waters_ (_post_, 1756), thus attacks cold bathing:--'It is incident to physicians, I am afraid, beyond all other men, to mistake subsequence for consequence. "The old gentleman," says Dr. Lucas, "that uses the cold bath, enjoys in return an uninterrupted state of health." This instance does not prove that the cold bath produces health, but only that it will not always destroy it. He is well with the bath, he would have been well without it.' _Literary Magazine_, p. 229.

[280] A prize of fifty pounds for the best poem on 'Life, Death, Judgement, Heaven, and h.e.l.l.' See _Gent. Mag_. vol. iv. p. 560. N.

BOSWELL. 'Cave sometimes offered subjects for poems, and proposed prizes for the best performers. The first prize was fifty pounds, for which, being but newly acquainted with wealth, and thinking the influence of fifty pounds extremely great, he expected the first authors of the kingdom to appear as compet.i.tors; and offered the allotment of the prize to the universities. But when the time came, no name was seen among the writers that had ever been seen before; the universities and several private men rejected the province of a.s.signing the prize.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 432.

[281] I suspect that Johnson wrote 'the Castle _Inn_, Birmingham.'

[282] Mrs. Piozzi gives the following account of this little composition from Dr. Johnson's own relation to her, on her inquiring whether it was rightly attributed to him:--'I think it is now just forty years ago, that a young fellow had a sprig of myrtle given him by a girl he courted, and asked me to write him some verses that he might present her in return. I promised, but forgot; and when he called for his lines at the time agreed on--Sit still a moment, (says I) dear Mund' [see _post_, May 7, 1773, for Johnson's 'way of contracting the names of his friends'], 'and I'll fetch them thee--So stepped aside for five minutes, and wrote the nonsense you now keep such a stir about.' _Anec_. p. 34.

In my first edition I was induced to doubt the authenticity of this account, by the following circ.u.mstantial statement in a letter to me from Miss Seward, of Lichfield:--'_I know_ those verses were addressed to Lucy Porter, when he was enamoured of her in his boyish days, two or three years before he had seen her mother, his future wife. He wrote them at my grandfather's, and gave them to Lucy in the presence of my mother, to whom he showed them on the instant. She used to repeat them to me, when I asked her for _the Verses Dr. Johnson gave her on a Sprig of Myrtle, which he had stolen or begged from her bosom_. We all know honest Lucy Porter to have been incapable of the mean vanity of applying to herself a compliment not _intended_ for her.' Such was this lady's statement, which I make no doubt she supposed to be correct; but it shews how dangerous it is to trust too implicitly to traditional testimony and ingenious inference; for Mr. Hector has lately a.s.sured me that Mrs. Piozzi's account is in this instance accurate, and that he was the person for whom Johnson wrote those verses, which have been erroneously ascribed to Mr. Hammond.

I am obliged in so many instances to notice Mrs. Piozzi's incorrectness of relation, that I gladly seize this opportunity of acknowledging, that however often, she is not always inaccurate.

The author having been drawn into a controversy with Miss Anna Seward, in consequence of the preceding statement, (which may be found in the _Gent. Mag_. vol. liii. and liv.) received the following letter from Mr.

Edmund Hector, on the subject:

'DEAR SIR,

'I am sorry to see you are engaged in altercation with a Lady, who seems unwilling to be convinced of her errors. Surely it would be more ingenuous to acknowledge, than to persevere.

'Lately, in looking over some papers I meant to burn, I found the original ma.n.u.script of the _Myrtle_, with the date on it, 1731, which I have inclosed.

'The true history (which I could swear to) is as follows: Mr. Morgan Graves, the elder brother of a worthy Clergyman near Bath, with whom I was acquainted, waited upon a lady in this neighbourhood, who at parting presented him the branch. He shewed it me, and wished much to return the compliment in verse. I applied to Johnson, who was with me, and in about half an hour dictated the verses which I sent to my friend.

'I most solemnly declare, at that time Johnson was an entire stranger to the Porter family; and it was almost two years after that I introduced him to the acquaintance of Porter, whom I bought my cloaths of.

'If you intend to convince this obstinate woman, and to exhibit to the publick the truth of your narrative, you are at liberty to make what use you please of this statement.

'I hope you will pardon me for taking up so much of your time. Wis.h.i.+ng you _multos et felices annos_, I shall subscribe myself,

'Your obliged humble servant,

'E. HECTOR.'

_Birmingham_, Jan. 9th, 1794.

BOSWELL. For a further account of Boswell's controversy with Miss Seward, see _post_, June 25, 1784.

[283] See _post_, beginning of 1744, April 28, 1783, and under Dec. 2, 1784.

[284] See _post_, near end of 1762, note.

[285] In the registry of St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, are the following entries:--'Baptisms, Nov. 8, 1715, Lucy, daughter of Henry Porter. Jan. 29, 1717 [O. S.], Jarvis Henry, son of Henry Porter.

Burials, Aug. 3, 1734, Henry Porter of Edgbaston.' There were two sons; one, Captain Porter, who died in 1763 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 130), the other who died in 1783 (_post_, Nov. 29, 1783).

[286] According to Malone, Reynolds said that 'he had paid attention to Johnson's limbs; and far from being unsightly, he deemed them well formed.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 175. Mrs. Piozzi says:--'His stature was remarkably high, and his limbs exceedingly large; his features were strongly marked, and his countenance particularly rugged; though the original complexion had certainly been fair, a circ.u.mstance somewhat unusual; his sight was near, and otherwise imperfect; yet his eyes, though of a light-grey colour, were so wild, so piercing, and at times so fierce, that fear was, I believe, the first emotion in the hearts of all his beholders.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 297. See _post_, end of the book, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, near the beginning.

[287] If Johnson wore his own hair at Oxford, it must have exposed him to ridicule. Graves, the author of _The Spiritual Quixote_, tells us that Shenstone had the courage to wear his own hair, though 'it often exposed him to the ill-natured remarks of people who had not half his sense. After I was elected at All Souls, where there was often a party of loungers in the gateway, on my expostulating with Mr. Shenstone for not visiting me so often as usual, he said, "he was ashamed to face his enemies in the gate."'

[288] See _post_, 1739.

[289] Mrs. Johnson was born on Feb. 4, 1688-9. MALONE. She was married on July 9, 1735, in St. Werburgh's Church, Derby, as is shewn by the following copy of the marriage register: '1735, July 9, Mar'd Sam'll Johnson of ye parish of St Mary's in Litchfield, and Eliz'th Porter of ye parish of St Phillip in Burmingham.' _Notes and Queries_, 4th S. vi.

44. At the time of their marriage, therefore, she was forty-six, and Johnson only two months short of twenty-six.

[290] The author of the _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr.

Johnson_, 1785, p. 25, says:--'Mrs. Porter's husband died insolvent, but her settlement was secured. She brought her second husband about seven or eight hundred pounds, a great part of which was expended in fitting up a house for a boarding-school.' That she had some money can be almost inferred from what we are told by Boswell and Hawkins. How other-wise was Johnson able to hire and furnish a large house for his school?

Boswell says that he had but three pupils. Hawkins gives him a few more.

'His number,' he writes (p. 36) 'at no time exceeded eight, and of those not all were boarders.' After nearly twenty months of married life, when he went to London, 'he had,' Boswell says, 'a little money.' It was not till a year later still that he began to write for the _Gent. Mag_. If Mrs. Johnson had not money, how did she and her husband live from July 1735 to the spring of 1738? It could scarcely have been on the profits made from their school. Inference, however, is no longer needful, as there is positive evidence. Mr. Timmins in his _Dr. Johnson in Birmingham_ (p. 4) writes:--'My friend, Mr. Joseph Hill, says, A copy of an old deed which has recently come into my hands, shews that a hundred pounds of Mrs. Johnson's fortune was left in the hands of a Birmingham attorney named Thomas Perks, who died insolvent; and in 1745, a bulky deed gave his creditors 7_s_. 4_d_. in the pound. Among the creditors for 100 were "Samuel Johnson, gent., and Elizabeth his wife, executors of the last will and testament of Harry Porter, late of Birmingham aforesaid, woollen draper, deceased." Johnson and his wife were almost the only creditors who did not sign the deed, their seals being left void. It is doubtful, therefore, whether they ever obtained the amount of the composition 36 13_s_. 4_d_.'

[291] Sir Walter Scott has recorded Lord Auchinleck's 'sneer of most sovereign contempt,' while he described Johnson as 'a dominie, monan auld dominie; he keeped a schule, and cau'd it an acaadamy.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 397, note.

[292] 'Edial is two miles west of Lichfield.' Harwood's _Lichfield_, p.

564.

[293] Johnson in more than one pa.s.sage in his writings seems to have in mind his own days as a schoolmaster. Thus in the _Life of Milton_ he says:--'This is the period of his life from which all his biographers seem inclined to shrink. They are unwilling that Milton should be degraded to a schoolmaster; but, since it cannot be denied that he taught boys, one finds out that he taught for nothing, and another that his motive was only zeal for the propagation of learning and virtue; and all tell what they do not know to be true, only to excuse an act which no wise man will consider as in itself disgraceful. His father was alive; his allowance was not ample; and he supplied its deficiencies by an honest and useful employment.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 75. In the _Life of Blackmore_ he says:--'In some part of his life, it is not known when, his indigence compelled him to teach a school, an humiliation with which, though it certainly lasted but a little while, his enemies did not forget to reproach him, when he became conspicuous enough to excite malevolence; and let it be remembered for his honour, that to have been once a school-master is the only reproach which all the perspicacity of malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his private life.'

Johnson's _Works_, viii. 36.

[294] In the original _To teach. Seasons, Spring_, l. 1149, Thomson is speaking, not of masters, but of parents.

[295] In the _Life of Milton_, Johnson records his own experience.

'Every man that has ever undertaken to instruct others can tell what slow advances he has been able to make, and how much patience it requires to recall vagrant inattention, to stimulate sluggish indifference, and to rectify absurd misapprehension.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 76.

[296]

'As masters fondly soothe their boys to read With cakes and sweetmeats.'

_Francis_, Hor. i. _Sat_. I. 25.

[297] As Johnson kept Garrick much in awe when present, David, when his back was turned, repaid the restraint with ridicule of him and his dulcinea, which should be read with great abatement. PERCY. He was not consistent in his account, for 'he told Mrs. Thrale that she was a _little painted puppet_ of no value at all.' 'He made out,' Mrs. Piozzi continues, 'some comical scenes, by mimicking her in a dialogue he pretended to have overheard. I do not know whether he meant such stuff to be believed or no, it was so comical. The picture I found of her at Lichfield was very pretty, and her daughter said it was like. Mr.

Johnson has told me that her hair was eminently beautiful, quite _blonde_ like that of a baby.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 148.

[298] Mr. Croker points out that in this paper 'there are two separate schemes, the first for a school--the second for the individual studies of some young friend.'

[299] In the _Rambler_, No. 122, Johnson, after stating that 'it is observed that our nation has been hitherto remarkably barren of historical genius,' praises Knolles, who, he says, 'in his _History of the Turks_, has displayed all the excellencies that narration can admit.'

[300] Both of them used to talk pleasantly of this their first journey to London. Garrick, evidently meaning to embellish a little, said one day in my hearing, 'we rode and tied.' And the Bishop of Killaloe informed me, that at another time, when Johnson and Garrick were dining together in a pretty large company, Johnson humorously ascertaining the chronology of something, expressed himself thus: 'that was the year when I came to London with two-pence half-penny in my pocket.' Garrick overhearing him, exclaimed, 'eh? what do you say? with two-pence half-penny in your pocket?'--JOHNSON, 'Why yes; when I came with two-pence half-penny in _my_ pocket, and thou, Davy, with three half-pence in thine.' BOSWELL.

[301] See _Gent. Mag_., xxiv. 333.

[302] Mr. Colson was First Master of the Free School at Rochester. In 1739 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.

MALONE. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 49) says that 'by Gelidus the philosopher (_Rambler_, No. 24), Johnson meant to represent Colson.'

[303] This letter is printed in the _Garrick Corres_. i. 2. There we read _I doubt not_.

[304] One curious anecdote was communicated by himself to Mr. John Nichols. Mr. Wilc.o.x, the bookseller, on being informed by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an authour, eyed his robust frame attentively, and with a significant look, said, 'You had better buy a porter's knot.' He however added, 'Wilc.o.x was one of my best friends.'

BOSWELL. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 43) states that Johnson and Garrick had soon exhausted their small stock of money in London, and that on Garrick's suggestion they applied for a loan to Wilc.o.x, of whom he had a slight knowledge. 'Representing themselves to him, as they really were, two young men, friends and travellers from the same place, and just arrived with a view to settle here, he was so moved with their artless tale, that on their joint note he advanced them all that their modesty would permit them to ask (five pounds), which was soon after punctually repaid.' Perhaps Johnson was thinking of himself when he recorded the advice given by Cibber to Fenton, 'When the tragedy of Mariamne was shewn to Cibber, it was rejected by him, with the additional insolence of advising Fenton to engage himself in some employment of honest labour, by which he might obtain that support which he could never hope from his poetry. The play was acted at the other theatre; and the brutal petulance of Cibber was confuted, though perhaps not shamed, by general applause.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 56. Adam Smith in the _Wealth of Nations_ (Book i. ch. 2) says that 'the difference between the most dissimilar characters, between a philosopher and a common street-porter, for example, seems to arise not so much from nature, as from habit, custom, and education.' Wilc.o.x's shop was in Little Britain. Benjamin Franklin, in 1725, lodged next door to him. 'He had,' says Franklin (_Memoirs_, i. 64), 'an immense collection of second-hand books.

Circulating libraries were not then in use; but we agreed that on certain reasonable terms I might read any of his books.'