Life of Johnson Volume I Part 59

[305] Bernard Lintot (_post_, July 19, 1763) died Feb. 3, 1736. _Gent.

Mag_. vi. 110. This, no doubt, was his son.

[306] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 195) says that being in London in 1746 he dined frequently with a club of officers, where they had an excellent dinner at ten-pence. From what he adds it is clear that the tavern-keeper made his profit on the wine. At Edinburgh, four years earlier, he and his fellow-students used to get 'at four-pence a-head a very good dinner of broth and beef, and a roast and potatoes every day, with fish three or four times a-week, and all the small beer that was called for till the cloth was removed' (_ib_. p. 63). W. Hutton, who in 1750 opened a very small book-shop in Birmingham, for which he paid rent at a s.h.i.+lling a week, says (_Life of Hutton_, p. 84): 'Five s.h.i.+llings a week covered every expense; as food, rent, was.h.i.+ng, lodging, &c.' He knew how to live wretchedly.

[307] On April 17, 1778, Johnson said: 'Early in life I drank wine; for many years I drank none. I then for some years drank a great deal. I then had a severe illness, and left it off, and I have never begun it again.' Somewhat the same account is given in Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 16, 1773. Roughly speaking, he seems to have been an abstainer from about 1736 to at least as late as 1757, and from about 1765 to the end of his life. In 1751 Hawkins (_Life_, p. 286) describes him as drinking only lemonade 'in a whole night spent in festivity' at the Ivy Lane Club. In 1757 he described himself 'as a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only tea'

(Johnson's _Works_, vi. 21). It was, I believe, in his visit to Oxford in 1759 that 'University College witnessed his drinking three bottles of port without being the worse for it' (_post_, April 7, 1778). When he was living in the Temple (between 1760-65) he had the frisk with Langton and Beauclerk when they made a bowl of _Bishop_ (_post_, 1753). On his birthday in 1760, he 'resolved to drink less strong liquors' (_Pr. and Med_. p. 42). In 1762 on his visit to Devons.h.i.+re he drank three bottles of wine after supper. This was the only time Reynolds had seen him intoxicated. (Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 161). In 1763 he affected Boswell's nerves by keeping him up late to drink port with him (_post_, July 14, 1763). On April 21, 1764, he records: 'From the beginning of this year I have in some measure forborne excess of strong drink' (_Pr.

and Med_. p. 51). On Easter Sunday he records: 'Avoided wine' (_id_. p.

55). On March 1, 1765, he is described at Cambridge as 'giving Mrs.

Macaulay for his toast, and drinking her in two b.u.mpers.' It was about this time that he had the severe illness (_post_, under Oct. 17, 1765, note). In Feb. 1766, Boswell found him no longer drinking wine. He shortly returned to it again; for on Aug. 2, 1767, he records, 'I have for some days forborne wine;' and on Aug. 17, 'By abstinence from wine and suppers I obtained sudden and great relief' (_Pr. and Med_. pp. 73, 4). According to Hawkins, Johnson said:--'After a ten years' forbearance of every fluid except tea and sherbet, I drank one gla.s.s of wine to the health of Sir Joshua Reynolds on the evening of the day on which he was knighted' (Hawkins's _Johnson's Works_ (1787), xi. 215). As Reynolds was knighted on April 21, 1769 (Taylor's _Reynolds_, i. 321), Hawkins's report is grossly inaccurate. In Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 16, 1773, and _post_, March 16, 1776, we find him abstaining. In 1778 he persuaded Boswell to be 'a water-drinker upon trial' (_post_, April 28, 1778). On April 7, 1779, 'he was persuaded to drink one gla.s.s of claret that he might judge of it, not from recollection.' On March 20, 1781, Boswell found that Johnson had lately returned to wine. 'I drink it now sometimes,' he said, 'but not socially.' He seems to have generally abstained however. On April 20, 1781, he would not join in drinking Lichfield ale. On March 17, 1782, he made some punch for himself, by which in the night he thought 'both his breast and imagination disordered' (_Pr. and Med_. p. 205). In the spring of this year Hannah More urged him to take a little wine. 'I can't drink a _little_, child,'

he answered; 'therefore I never touch it' (H. More's _Memoirs_, i. 251).

On July 1, 1784, Beattie, who met him at dinner, says, 'he cannot be prevailed on to drink wine' (Beattie's _Life_, p. 316). On his death-bed he refused any 'inebriating sustenance' (_post_, Dec. 1784). It is remarkable that writing to Dr. Taylor on Aug. 5, 1773, he said:--'Drink a great deal, and sleep heartily;' and that on June 23, 1776, he again wrote to him:--'I hope you presever in drinking. My opinion is that I have drunk too little, and therefore have the gout, for it is of my own acquisition, as neither my father had it nor my mother' (_Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. pp. 422, 3). On Sept. 19, 1777 (_post_), he even 'owned that in his opinion a free use of wine did not shorten life.'

Johnson disapproved of fermented liquors only in the case of those who, like himself and Boswell, could not keep from excess.

[308] Ofellus, or rather Ofella, is the 'rusticus, abnormis sapiens, cra.s.saque Minerva' of Horace's _Satire_, ii. 2. 3. What he teaches is briefly expressed in Pope's Imitation, ii. 2. 1:

'What, and how great, the virtue and the art To live on little with a cheerful heart (A doctrine sage, but truly none of mine); Let's talk, my friends, but talk before we dine.'

In 1769 was published a worthless poem called _The Art of Living in London_; in which 'instructions were given to persons who live in a garret, and spend their evenings in an ale-house.' _Gent. Mag_. x.x.xix.

45. To this Boswell refers.

[309] 'Johnson this day, when we were by ourselves, observed how common it was for people to talk from books; to retail the sentiments of others, and not their own; in short, to converse without any originality of thinking. He was pleased to say, "You and I do not talk from books."'

Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 3, 1773.

[310] The pa.s.sage to Ireland was commonly made from Chester.

[311] The honourable Henry Hervey, third son of the first Earl of Bristol, quitted the army and took orders. He married a sister of Sir Thomas Aston, by whom he got the Aston Estate, and a.s.sumed the name and arms of that family. Vide Collins's _Peerage_. BOSWELL.

[312] The following brief mention of Greenwich Park in 1750 is found in one of Miss Talbot's Letters. 'Then when I come to talk of Greenwich--Did you ever see it? It was quite a new world to me, and a very charming one. Only on the top of a most inaccessible hill in the park, just as we were arrived at a view that we had long been aiming at, a violent clap of thunder burst over our heads.'--_Carter and Talbot Corres_, i. 345.

[313] At the Oxford Commemoration of 1733 Courayer returned thanks in his robes to the University for the honour it had done him two years before in presenting him with his degree. _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and his Critics_, p. 94.

[314] This library was given by George IV to the British Museum. CROKER.

[315] Ovid, Meta. iii. 724.

[316] Act iii. sc. 8.

[317] Act i. sc. 1.

[318] Act ii. sc. 7.

[319] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 232 [Sept. 20, 1773]. BOSWELL.

[320] Johnson's letter to her of Feb. 6, 1759, shows that she was, at that time, living in his house at Lichfield. Miss Seward (_Letters_, i.

116) says that 'she boarded in Lichfield with his mother.' Some pa.s.sages in other of his letters (Croker's _Boswell_, pp. 144, 145, 173) lead me to think that she stayed on in this house till 1766, when she had built herself a house with money left her by her brother.

[321] See _post_, Oct. 10, 1779.

[322] He could scarcely have solicited a worse manager. Horace Walpole writing in 1744 (_Letters_, i. 332) says: 'The town has been trying all this winter to beat pantomimes off the stage very boisterously.

Fleetwood, the master of Drury-Lane, has omitted nothing to support them as they supported his house. About ten days ago, he let into the pit great numbers of Bear-garden _bruisers_ (that is the term) to knock down everybody that hissed. The pit rallied their forces and drove them out.'

[323] It was not till volume v. that Cave's name was given on the t.i.tle-page. In volumes viii. and ix., and volumes xii. to xvii. the name is Edward Cave, Jun. Cave in his examination before the House of Lords on April 30, 1747, said:--'That he was concerned in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ at first with his nephew; and since the death of his nephew he has done it entirely himself.' _Parl. Hist_. xiv. 59.

[324] Its sale, according to Johnson, was ten thousand copies. _Post_, April 25, 1778. So popular was it that before it had completed its ninth year the fifth edition of some of the earliest numbers was printed.

Johnson's _Works_, v. 349. In the _Life of Cave_ Johnson describes it as 'a periodical pamphlet, of which the scheme is known wherever the English language is spoken.' _Ib_. vi. 431.

[325] Yet the early numbers contained verses as grossly indecent as they were dull. Cave moreover advertised indecent books for sale at St.

John's Gate, and in one instance, at least, the advertis.e.m.e.nt was in very gross language.

[326] See _post_, April 25, 1778.

[327] While in the course of my narrative I enumerate his writings, I shall take care that my readers shall not be left to waver in doubt, between certainty and conjecture, with regard to their authenticity; and, for that purpose, shall mark with an _asterisk_ (*) those which he acknowledged to his friends, and with a _dagger_ (dagger) those which are ascertained to be his by internal evidence. When any other pieces are ascribed to him, I shall give my reasons. BOSWELL.

[328] Hawkins says that 'Cave had few of those qualities that const.i.tute the character of urbanity. Upon the first approach of a stranger his practice was to continue sitting, and for a few minutes to continue silent. If at any time he was inclined to begin the discourse, it was generally by putting a leaf of the _Magazine_ then in the press into the hand of his visitor and asking his opinion of it. He was so incompetent a judge of Johnson's abilities that, meaning at one time to dazzle him with the splendour of some of those luminaries in literature who favoured him with their correspondence, he told him that, if he would in the evening be at a certain alehouse in the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell, he might have a chance of seeing Mr. Browne and another or two of the persons mentioned in the preceding note. [The note contained the names of some of Cave's regular writers.] Johnson accepted the invitation; and being introduced by Cave, dressed in a loose horseman's coat, and such a great bushy uncombed wig as he constantly wore, to the sight of Mr. Browne, whom he found sitting at the upper end of a long table, in a cloud of tobacco-smoke, had his curiosity gratified.' [Mr.

Carlyle writes of 'bushy-wigged Cave;' but it was Johnson whose wig is described, and not Cave's. On p. 327 Hawkins again mentions his 'great bushy wig,' and says that 'it was ever nearly as impenetrable by a comb as a quickset hedge.'] Hawkins's _Johnson_, pp. 45-50. Johnson, after mentioning Cave's slowness, says: 'The same chillness of mind was observable in his conversation; he was watching the minutest accent of those whom he disgusted by seeming inattention; and his visitant was surprised, when he came a second time, by preparations to execute the scheme which he supposed never to have been heard.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 434.

[329] 'The first lines put one in mind of Casimir's Ode to Pope Urban:--

"Urbane, regum maxime, maxime Urbane vatum."

The Polish poet was probably at that time in the hands of a man who had meditated the history of the Latin poets.' Murphy's _Johnson_, p. 42.

[330] Cave had been grossly attacked by rival booksellers; see _Gent.

Mag_., viii. 156. Hawkins says (_Life_, p. 92), 'With that sagacity which we frequently observe, but wonder at, in men of slow parts, he seemed to antic.i.p.ate the advice contained in Johnson's ode, and forbore a reply, though not his revenge.' This he gratified by reprinting in his own Magazine one of the most scurrilous and foolish attacks.

[331] A translation of this Ode, by an unknown correspondent, appeared in the _Magazine_ for the month of May following:

'Hail, URBAN! indefatigable man, Unwearied yet by all thy useful toil!

Whom num'rous slanderers a.s.sault in vain; Whom no base calumny can put to foil.

But still the laurel on thy learned brow Flourishes fair, and shall for ever grow.

'What mean the servile imitating crew, What their vain bl.u.s.t'ring, and their empty noise, Ne'er seek: but still thy n.o.ble ends pursue, Unconquer'd by the rabble's venal voice.

Still to the Muse thy studious mind apply, Happy in temper as in industry.

'The senseless sneerings of an haughty tongue, Unworthy thy attention to engage, Unheeded pa.s.s: and tho' they mean thee wrong, By manly silence disappoint their rage.

a.s.siduous diligence confounds its foes, Resistless, tho' malicious crouds oppose.

'Exert thy powers, nor slacken in the course, Thy spotless fame shall quash all false reports: Exert thy powers, nor fear a rival's force, But thou shalt smile at all his vain efforts; Thy labours shall be crown'd with large success; The Muse's aid thy Magazine shall bless.

'No page more grateful to th' harmonious nine Than that wherein thy labours we survey; Where solemn themes in fuller splendour s.h.i.+ne, (Delightful mixture,) blended with the gay, Where in improving, various joys we find, A welcome respite to the wearied mind.

'Thus when the nymphs in some fair verdant mead, Of various flowr's a beauteous wreath compose, The lovely violet's azure-painted head Adds l.u.s.tre to the crimson-blus.h.i.+ng rose.

Thus splendid Iris, with her varied dye, s.h.i.+nes in the aether, and adorns the sky. BRITON.'

BOSWELL.

[332] 'I have some reason to think that at his first coming to town he frequented Slaughter's coffee-house with a view to acquire a habit of speaking French, but he never could attain to it. Lockman used the same method and succeeded, as Johnson himself once told me.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 516. Lockman is _l'il.u.s.tre Lockman_ mentioned _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. It was at 'Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, when a number of foreigners were talking loud about little matters, that Johnson one evening said, "Does not this confirm old Meynell's observation, _For anything I see, foreigners are fools_"?'

_post_, ib.