Life of Johnson Volume I Part 64

[457] In the _Life of Pope_ (Johnson's _Works_, viii. 287) Johnson says that Crousaz, 'however little known or regarded here, was no mean antagonist'

[458] It is not easy to believe that Boswell had read this essay, for there is nothing metaphysical in what Johnson wrote. Two-thirds of the paper are a translation from Crousaz. Boswell does not seem to have distinguished between Crousaz's writings and Johnson's. We have here a striking instance of the way in which Cave sometimes treated his readers. One-third of this essay is given in the number for March, the rest in the number for November.

[459]

Angliacas inter pulcherrima Laura puellas, Mox uteri pondus depositura grave, Adsit, Laura, tibi facilis Lucina dolenti, Neve tibi noceat praenituisse Deae.

Mr. Hector was present when this Epigram was made _impromptu_. The first line was proposed by Dr. James, and Johnson was called upon by the company to finish it, which he instantly did. BOSWELL. Macaulay (_Essays_, i. 364) criticises Mr. Croker's criticism of this epigram.

[460] The lines with which this poem is introduced seem to show that it cannot be Johnson's. He was not the man to allow that haste of performance was any plea for indulgence. They are as follows:--'Though several translations of Mr. Pope's verses on his Grotto have already appeared, we hope that the following attempt, which, we are a.s.sured, was the casual amus.e.m.e.nt of half an hour during several solicitations to proceed, will neither be unacceptable to our readers, nor (these circ.u.mstances considered) dishonour the persons concerned by a hasty publication.' _Gent. Mag_. xiii. 550.

[461] See _Gent. Mag_. xiii. 560. I doubt whether this advertis.e.m.e.nt be from Johnson's hand. It is very unlikely that he should make the advertiser in one and the same paragraph when speaking of himself use _us_ and _mine_. Boswell does not mention the Preface to vol. iii. of the _Harkian Catalogue_. It is included in Johnson's _Works_ (v. 198).

Its author, be he who he may, in speaking of literature, says:--'I have idly hoped to revive a taste well-nigh extinguished.'

[462] Johnson did not speak equally well of Dr. James's morals. 'He will not,' he wrote, 'pay for three box tickets which he took. It is a strange fellow.' The tickets were no doubt for Miss Williams's benefit (Croker's _Boswell_, 8vo. p. 101). See _ante_, p. 81, and _post_, March 28, 1776, end of 1780, note.

[463] See _post_, April 5, 1776.

[464] 'TO DR. MEAD.

'SIR,

'That the _Medicinal Dictionary_ is dedicated to you, is to be imputed only to your reputation for superior skill in those sciences which I have endeavoured to explain and facilitate: and you are, therefore, to consider this address, if it be agreeable to you, as one of the rewards of merit; and if, otherwise, as one of the inconveniences of eminence.

'However you shall receive it, my design cannot be disappointed; because this publick appeal to your judgement will shew that I do not found my hopes of approbation upon the ignorance of my readers, and that I fear his censure least, whose knowledge is most extensive.

'I am, Sir,

'Your most obedient

'humble servant,

'R. JAMES.'

BOSWELL. See _post_, May 16, 1778, where Johnson said, 'Dr. Mead lived more in the broad suns.h.i.+ne of life than almost any man.'

[465] Johnson was used to speak of him in this manner:--'Tom is a lively rogue; he remembers a great deal, and can tell many pleasant stories; but a pen is to Tom a torpedo, the touch of it benumbs his hand and his brain.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 209. Goldsmith in his _Life of Nash_ (Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 54) says:--'Nash was not born a writer, for whatever humour he might have in conversation, he used to call a pen his torpedo; whenever he grasped it, it benumbed all his faculties.' It is very likely that Nash borrowed this saying from Johnson. In Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 24, 1773, we read:--Dr. Birch being mentioned, Dr. Johnson said he had more anecdotes than any man. I said, Percy had a great many; that he flowed with them like one of the brooks here. JOHNSON. "If Percy is like one of the brooks here, Birch was like the River Thames. Birch excelled Percy in that as much as Percy excels Goldsmith." Disraeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, iii, 425) describes Dr. Birch as 'one to whom British history stands more indebted than to any superior author. He has enriched the British Museum by thousands of the most authentic doc.u.ments of genuine secret history.'

[466] _Ante_, p. 140.

[467] In 1761 Mr. John Levett was returned for Lichfield, but on pet.i.tion was declared to be not duly elected (_Parl. Hist_. xv. 1088).

Perhaps he was already aiming at public life.

[468] One explanation may be found of Johnson's intimacy with Savage and with other men of loose character. 'He was,' writes Hawkins, 'one of the most quick-sighted men I ever knew in discovering the good and amiable qualities of others' (Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 50). 'He was,' says Boswell (_post_, April 13, 1778), 'willing to take men as they are, imperfect, and with a mixture of good and bad qualities.' How intimate the two men were is shown by the following pa.s.sage in Johnson's _Life of Savage_:--'Savage left London in July, 1739, having taken leave with great tenderness of his friends, and parted from the author of this narrative with tears in his eyes.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 173.

[469] As a specimen of his temper, I insert the following letter from him to a n.o.ble Lord, to whom he was under great obligations, but who, on account of his bad conduct, was obliged to discard him. The original was in the hands of the late Francis c.o.c.kayne Cust, Esq., one of His Majesty's Counsel learned in the law:

'_Right Honourable_ BRUTE, _and_ b.o.o.bY,

'I find you want (as Mr. ---- is pleased to hint,) to swear away my life, that is, the life of your creditor, because he asks you for a debt.--The publick shall soon be acquainted with this, to judge whether you are not fitter to be an Irish Evidence, than to be an Irish Peer.--I defy and despise you.

'I am,

'Your determined adversary,

'R. S.'

BOSWELL. The n.o.ble Lord was no doubt Lord Tyrconnel. See Johnson's _Works_, viii. 140. Mr. Cust is mentioned _post_, p. 170.

[470] 'Savage took all opportunities of conversing familiarly with those who were most conspicuous at that time for their power or their influence; he watched their looser moments, and examined their domestic behaviour with that acuteness which nature had given him, and which the uncommon variety of his life had contributed to increase, and that inquisitiveness which must always be produced in a vigorous mind by an absolute freedom from all pressing or domestic engagements.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 135.

[471] 'Thus he spent his time in mean expedients and tormenting suspense, living for the greatest part in the fear of prosecutions from his creditors, and consequently skulking in obscure parts of the town, of which he was no stranger to the remotest corners.' _Ib_. p. 165.

[472] Sir John Hawkins gives the world to understand, that Johnson, 'being an admirer of genteel manners, was captivated by the address and demeanour of Savage, who, as to his exterior, was, to a remarkable degree, accomplished.' Hawkins's _Life_, p. 52. But Sir John's notions of gentility must appear somewhat ludicrous, from his stating the following circ.u.mstance as presumptive evidence that Savage was a good swordsman: 'That he understood the exercise of a gentleman's weapon, may be inferred from the use made of it in that rash encounter which is related in his life.' The dexterity here alluded to was, that Savage, in a nocturnal fit of drunkenness, stabbed a man at a coffee-house, and killed him; for which he was tried at the Old-Bailey, and found guilty of murder.

Johnson, indeed, describes him as having 'a grave and manly deportment, a solemn dignity of mien; but which, upon a nearer acquaintance, softened into an engaging easiness of manners.' [Johnson's _Works_, viii. 187.] How highly Johnson admired him for that knowledge which he himself so much cultivated, and what kindness he entertained for him, appears from the following lines in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for April, 1738, which I am a.s.sured were written by Johnson:

_'Ad_ RICARDUM SAVAGE.

'Humani studium generis cui pectore fervet O colat humanum te foveatque genus.'

BOSWELL. The epigram is inscribed Ad Ricardum Savage, Arm. Humani Generis Amatorem. _Gent. Mag_. viii. 210.

[473] The following striking proof of Johnson's extreme indigence, when he published the _Life of Savage_, was communicated to the author, by Mr. Richard Stow, of Apsley, in Bedfords.h.i.+re, from the information of Mr. Walter Harte, author of the _Life of Gustavus Adolphus_:

'Soon after Savage's _Life_ was published, Mr. Harte dined with Edward Cave, and occasionally praised it. Soon after, meeting him, Cave said, 'You made a man very happy t'other day.'--'How could that be,' says Harte; 'n.o.body was there but ourselves.' Cave answered, by reminding him that a plate of victuals was sent behind a screen, which was to Johnson, dressed so shabbily, that he did not choose to appear; but on hearing the conversation, was highly delighted with the encomiums on his book.'

MALONE. 'He desired much to be alone, yet he always loved good talk, and often would get behind the screen to hear it.' Great-Heart's account of Fearing; _Pilgrim's Progress_, Part II. Harte was tutor to Lord Chesterfield's son. See _post_, 1770, in Dr. Maxwell's _Collectanea_, and March 30, 1781.

[474] 'Johnson has told me that whole nights have been spent by him and Savage in a perambulation round the squares of Westminster, St. James's in particular, when all the money they could both raise was less than sufficient to purchase for them the shelter and sordid comforts of a night's cellar.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, P. 53. Where was Mrs. Johnson living at this time? This perhaps was the time of which Johnson wrote, when, after telling of a silver cup which his mother had bought him, and marked SAM. I., he says:--'The cup was one of the last pieces of plate which dear Tetty sold in our distress.' _Account of Johnson's Early Life_, p. 18. Yet it is not easy to understand how, if there was a lodging for her, there was not one for him. She might have been living with friends. We have a statement by Hawkins (p. 89) that there was 'a temporary separation of Johnson from his wife.' He adds that, 'while he was in a lodging in Fleet Street, she was harboured by a friend near the Tower.' This separation, he insinuates, rose by an estrangement caused by Johnson's 'indifference in the discharge of the domestic virtues.' It is far more likely that it rose from dest.i.tution.

Shenstone, in a letter written in 1743, gives a curious account of the streets of London through which Johnson wandered. He says;--'London is really dangerous at this time; the pickpockets, formerly content with mere filching, make no scruple to knock people down with bludgeons in Fleet Street and the Strand, and that at no later hour than eight o'clock at night; but in the Piazzas, Covent Garden, they come in large bodies, armed with _couteaus_, and attack whole parties, so that the danger of coming out of the play-houses is of some weight in the opposite scale, when I am disposed to go to them oftener than I ought.'

Shenstone's _Works_ (edit.), iii. 73.

[475] 'Savage lodged as much by accident as he dined, and pa.s.sed the night sometimes in mean houses, ... and sometimes, when he had not money to support even the expenses of these receptacles, walked about the streets till he was weary, and lay down in the summer upon a bulk, or in the winter, with his a.s.sociates in poverty, among the ashes of a gla.s.s-house. In this manner were pa.s.sed those days and those nights which nature had enabled him to have employed in elevated speculations, useful studies, or pleasing conversation.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 159.

[476] See _ante_, p. 94.

[477] Cave was the purchaser of the copyright, and the following is a copy of Johnson's receipt for the money:--'The 14th day of December, received of Mr. Ed. Cave the sum of fifteen guineas, in full, for compiling and writing _The Life of Richard Savage, Esq_., deceased; and in full for all materials thereto applied, and not found by the said Edward Cave. I say, received by me, SAM. JOHNSON. Dec. 14, 1743.'

WRIGHT. The t.i.tle-page is as follows:--'An account of the Life of Mr.

Richard Savage, son of the Earl Rivers. London. Printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick-Lane. MDCCXLIV. It reached a second edition in 1748, a third in 1767, and a fourth in 1769. A French translation was published in 1771.

[478] Roberts published in 1745 Johnson's _Observations on Macbeth_. See _Gent. Mag_. xv. 112, 224.

[479] Horace, _Ars Poetica_ l. 317.

[480] In the autumn of 1752. Northcote's _Reynolds_ i. 52

[481] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd ed. p. 35 [p. 55. Aug.