Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) - Boswell
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BOSWELL'S
LIFE OF JOHNSON
INCLUDING BOSWELL'S JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES
AND JOHNSON'S DIARY OF A JOURNEY INTO NORTH WALES
EDITED BY
GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L.
PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD
IN SIX VOLUMES
VOLUME IV.--LIFE (1780-1784)
CONTENTS OF VOL. IV.
LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (1780-DEC. 13, 1784)
APPENDICES:
A. ALTERCATION BETWEEN DR. JOHNSON AND DEAN BARNARD.
B. JOHNSON AND PRIESTLEY.
C. THE CLUB IN IVY-LANE.
D. THE ESSEX HEAD CLUB.
E. MISS BURNEY'S ACCOUNT OF JOHNSON'S LAST DAYS.
F. NOTES ON JOHNSON'S WILL, ETC.
G. NOTES ON BOSWELL'S NOTE.
H. NOTES ON BOSWELL'S NOTE.
I. PARR'S EPITAPH ON JOHNSON.
FOOTNOTES.
_THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D._
Being disappointed in my hopes of meeting Johnson this year, so that I
could hear none of his admirable sayings, I shall compensate for this
want[1] by inserting a collection of them, for which I am indebted to my
worthy friend Mr. Langton, whose kind communications have been
separately interwoven in many parts of this work. Very few articles of
this collection were committed to writing by himself, he not having that
habit; which he regrets, and which those who know the numerous
opportunities he had of gathering the rich fruits of _Johnsonian_ wit
and wisdom, must ever regret. I however found, in conversations with
him, that a good store of _Johnsoniana_ treasured in his mind[2]; and I
compared it to Herculaneum, or some old Roman field, which when dug,
fully rewards the labour employed. The authenticity of every article is
unquestionable. For the expression, I, who wrote them down in his
presence, am partly answerable.
'Theocritus is not deserving of very high respect as a writer; as to the
pastoral part, Virgil is very evidently superiour. He wrote when there
had been a larger influx of knowledge into the world than when
Theocritus lived. Theocritus does not abound in description, though
living in a beautiful country: the manners painted are coarse and gross.
Virgil has much more description, more sentiment, more of Nature, and
more of art. Some of the most excellent parts of Theocritus are, where
Castor and Pollux, going with the other Argonauts, land on the Bebrycian
coast, and there fall into a dispute with Amycus, the King of that
country; which is as well conducted as Euripides could have done it; and
the battle is well related. Afterwards they carry off a woman, whose two
brothers come to recover her, and expostulate with Castor and Pollux on
their injustice; but they pay no regard to the brothers, and a battle
ensues, where Castor and his brother are triumphant. Theocritus seems
not to have seen that the brothers have the advantage in their argument
over his Argonaut heroes. _The Sicilian Gossips_ is a piece of merit.'
'Callimachus is a writer of little excellence. The chief thing to be
learned from him is his account of Rites and Mythology; which, though
desirable to be known for the sake of understanding other parts of
ancient authours, is the least pleasing or valuable part of their
writings.'
'Mattaire's account of the Stephani[3] is a heavy book. He seems to have
been a puzzle-headed man, with a large share of scholarship, but with
little geometry or logick in his head, without method, and possessed of
little genius. He wrote Latin verses from time to time, and published a
set in his old age, which he called '_Senilia_;' in which he shews so
little learning or taste in writing, as to make _Carteret_ a dactyl[4].
In matters of genealogy it is necessary to give the bare names as they
are; but in poetry, and in prose of any elegance in the writing, they
require to have inflection given to them. His book of the Dialects[5] is
a sad heap of confusion; the only way to write on them is to tabulate
them with Notes, added at the bottom of the page, and references.'
'It may be questioned, whether there is not some mistake as to the
methods of employing the poor, seemingly on a supposition that there is
a certain portion of work left undone for want of persons to do it; but
if that is otherwise, and all the materials we have are actually worked
up, or all the manufactures we can use or dispose of are already
executed, then what is given to the poor, who are to be set at work,
must be taken from some who now have it; as time must be taken for
learning, according to Sir William Petty's observation, a certain part
of those very materials that, as it is, are properly worked up, must be
spoiled by the unskilfulness of novices. We may apply to well-meaning,
but misjudging persons in particulars of this nature, what Giannone[6]
said to a monk, who wanted what he called to _convert_ him: _"Tu sei
santo, ma tu non sei filosofo"_--It is an unhappy circumstance that one
might give away five hundred pounds in a year to those that importune in
the streets, and not do any good[7].'
'There is nothing more likely to betray a man into absurdity than
_condescension_; when he seems to suppose his understanding too powerful
for his company[8].'
'Having asked Mr. Langton if his father and mother had sat for their
pictures, which he thought it right for each generation of a family to
do, and being told they had opposed it, he said, "Sir, among the
anfractuosities[9] of the human mind, I know not if it may not be one,
that there is a superstitious reluctance to sit for a picture."'
'John Gilbert Cooper[10] related, that soon after the publication of his
_Dictionary_, Garrick being asked by Johnson what people said of it,
told him, that among other animadversions, it was objected that he cited
authorities which were beneath the dignity of such a work, and mentioned
Richardson. "Nay, (said Johnson,) I have done worse than that: I have
cited _thee_, David[11]."'
'Talking of expence, he observed, with what munificence a great merchant
will spend his money, both from his having it at command, and from his
enlarged views by calculation of a good effect upon the whole. "Whereas
(said he) you will hardly ever find a country gentleman who is not a
good deal disconcerted at an unexpected occasion for his being obliged
to lay out ten pounds[12]."'
'When in good humour he would talk of his own writings with a wonderful
frankness and candour, and would even criticise them with the closest
severity. One day, having read over one of his Ramblers, Mr. Langton
asked him, how he liked that paper; he shook his head, and answered,
"too wordy." At another time, when one was reading his tragedy of
_Irene_ to a company at a house in the country, he left the room; and
somebody having asked him the reason of this, he replied, Sir, I thought
it had been better[13].'
'Talking of a point of delicate scrupulosity[14] of moral conduct, he
said to Mr. Langton, "Men of harder minds than ours will do many things
from which you and I would shrink; yet, Sir, they will perhaps do more
good in life than we. But let us try to help one another. If there be a
wrong twist it may be set right. It is not probable that two people can
be wrong the same way."'
'Of the Preface to Capel's _Shakspeare_, he said, "If the man would have
come to me, I would have endeavoured to endow his purposes with words;
for as it is, he doth gabble monstrously[15]."'
'He related, that he had once in a dream a contest of wit with some
other person, and that he was very much mortified by imagining that his
opponent had the better of him. "Now, (said he,) one may mark here the
effect of sleep in weakening the power of reflection; for had not my
judgement failed me, I should have seen, that the wit of this supposed
antagonist, by whose superiority I felt myself depressed, was as much
furnished by me, as that which I thought I had been uttering in my own
character."'
'One evening in company, an ingenious and learned gentleman read to him
a letter of compliment which he had received from one of the Professors
of a foreign University. Johnson, in an irritable fit, thinking there
was too much ostentation, said, "I never receive any of these tributes
of applause from abroad. One instance I recollect of a foreign
publication, in which mention is made of _l'illustre Lockman_[16]."'
'Of Sir Joshua Reynolds, he said, "Sir, I know no man who has passed
through life with more observation than Reynolds."'
'He repeated to Mr. Langton, with great energy, in the Greek, our
SAVIOUR'S gracious expression concerning the forgiveness of Mary
Magdalen, "[Greek: Ae pistis sou sesoke se poreuou eis eiraeuaeu.] Thy
faith hath saved thee; go in peace[17]." He said, "the manner of this
dismission is exceedingly affecting."'
'He thus defined the difference between physical and moral truth;
"Physical truth, is, when you tell a thing as it actually is. Moral
truth, is, when you tell a thing sincerely and precisely as it appears
to you. I say such a one walked across the street; if he really did so,
I told a physical truth. If I thought so, though I should have been
mistaken, I told a moral truth."'
'Huggins, the translator of Ariosto, and Mr. Thomas Warton, in the early
part of his literary life, had a dispute concerning that poet, of whom
Mr. Warton in his _Observations on Spenser's Fairy Queen_, gave some
account, which Huggins attempted to answer with violence, and said, "I
will _militate_ no longer against his _nescience_." Huggins was master
of the subject, but wanted expression. Mr. Warton's knowledge of it was
then imperfect, but his manner lively and elegant[18]. Johnson said, "It
appears to me, that Huggins has ball without powder, and Warton powder
without ball."'
'Talking of the Farce of _High Life below Stairs_[19], he said, "Here is
a Farce, which is really very diverting when you see it acted; and yet
one may read it, and not know that one has been reading any thing
at all."'
'He used at one time to go occasionally to the green room of Drury-lane
Theatre[20], where he was much regarded by the players, and was very
easy and facetious with them. He had a very high opinion of Mrs. Clive's
comick powers, and conversed more with her than with any of them. He
said, "Clive, Sir, is a good thing to sit by; she always understands
what you say[21]." And she said of him, "I love to sit by Dr. Johnson;
he always entertains me." One night, when _The Recruiting Officer_ was
acted, he said to Mr. Holland[22], who had been expressing an
apprehension that Dr. Johnson would disdain the works of Farquhar; "No,
Sir, I think Farquhar a man whose writings have considerable merit."'
'His friend Garrick was so busy in conducting the drama, that they could
not have so much intercourse as Mr. Garrick used to profess an anxious
wish that there should be[23]. There might, indeed, be something in the
contemptuous severity as to the merit of acting, which his old preceptor
nourished in himself, that would mortify Garrick after the great
applause which he received from the audience. For though Johnson said of
him, "Sir, a man who has a nation to admire him every night, may well be
expected to be somewhat elated[24];" yet he would treat theatrical
matters with a ludicrous slight. He mentioned one evening, "I met David
coming off the stage, drest in a woman's riding-hood, when he acted in
_The Wonder_[25]; I came full upon him, and I believe he was not
pleased."'
'Once he asked Tom Davies, whom he saw drest in a fine suit of clothes,
"And what art thou to-night?" Tom answered, "The Thane of Ross[26];"
(which it will be recollected is a very inconsiderable character.) "O
brave!" said Johnson.'
'Of Mr. Longley, at Rochester, a gentleman of very considerable
learning, whom Dr. Johnson met there, he said, "My heart warms towards
him. I was surprised to find in him such a nice acquaintance with the
metre in the learned languages; though I was somewhat mortified that I
had it not so much to myself, as I should have thought[27]."'
'Talking of the minuteness with which people will record the sayings of
eminent persons, a story was told, that when Pope was on a visit to
Spence[28] at Oxford, as they looked from the window they saw a
Gentleman Commoner, who was just come in from riding, amusing himself
with whipping at a post. Pope took occasion to say, "That young
gentleman seems to have little to do." Mr. Beauclerk observed, "Then, to
be sure, Spence turned round and wrote that down;" and went on to say to
Dr. Johnson, "Pope, Sir, would have said the same of you, if he had seen
you distilling[29]." JOHNSON. "Sir, if Pope had told me of my
distilling, I would have told him of his grotto[30]."'
'He would allow no settled indulgence of idleness upon principle, and
always repelled every attempt to urge excuses for it, A friend one day
suggested, that it was not wholesome to study soon after dinner.
JOHNSON. "Ah, Sir, don't give way to such a fancy. At one time of my
life I had taken it into my head that it was not wholesome to study
between breakfast and dinner[31]."'
'Mr. Beauclerk one day repeated to Dr. Johnson Pope's lines,
"Let modest Foster, if he will, excel
Ten metropolitans in preaching well:" [32]
Then asked the Doctor, "Why did Pope say this?" JOHNSON. 'Sir, he hoped
it would vex somebody.'
'Dr. Goldsmith, upon occasion of Mrs. Lennox's bringing out a play[33],
said to Dr. Johnson at the CLUB, that a person had advised him to go and
hiss it, because she had attacked Shakspeare in her book called
_Shakspeare Illustrated_[34]. JOHNSON. "And did not you tell him he was
a rascal[35]?" GOLDSMITH. "No, Sir, I did not. Perhaps he might not mean
what he said." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, if he lied, it is a different thing."
Colman slily said, (but it is believed Dr. Johnson did not hear him,)
"Then the proper expression should have been,--Sir, if you don't lie,
you're a rascal."'
'His affection for Topham Beauclerk was so great, that when Beauclerk
was labouring under that severe illness which at last occasioned his
death, Johnson said, (with a voice faultering with emotion,) "Sir, I
would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save
Beauclerk[36]."'
'One night at the CLUB he produced a translation of an Epitaph which
Lord Elibank had written in English, for his Lady, and requested of
Johnson to turn into Latin for him. Having read _Domina de North et
Gray_, he said to Dyer, "You see, Sir, what barbarisms we are compelled
to make use of, when modern titles are to be specifically mentioned in
Latin inscriptions." When he had read it once aloud, and there had been
a general approbation expressed by the company, he addressed himself to
Mr. Dyer in particular, and said, "Sir, I beg to have your judgement,
for I know your nicety[37]." Dyer then very properly desired to read it
over again; which having done, he pointed out an incongruity in one of
the sentences. Johnson immediately assented to the observation, and
said, "Sir, this is owing to an alteration of a part of the sentence,
from the form in which I had first written it; and I believe, Sir, you
may have remarked, that the making a partial change, without a due
regard to the general structure of the sentence, is a very frequent
cause of errour in composition."'
'Johnson was well acquainted with Mr. Dossie, authour of a treatise on
Agriculture[38]; and said of him, "Sir, of the objects which the Society
of Arts have chiefly in view, the chymical effects of bodies operating
upon other bodies, he knows more than almost any man." Johnson, in order
to give Mr. Dossie his vote to be a member of this Society, paid up an
arrear which had run on for two years. On this occasion he mentioned a
circumstance as characteristick of the Scotch. One of that nation, (said
he,) who had been a candidate, against whom I had voted, came up to me
with a civil salutation. Now, Sir, this is their way. An Englishman
would have stomached it, and been sulky, and never have taken further
notice of you; but a Scotchman, Sir, though you vote nineteen times
against him, will accost you with equal complaisance after each time,
and the twentieth time, Sir, he will get your vote.'
'Talking on the subject of toleration, one day when some friends were
with him in his study, he made his usual remark, that the State has a
right to regulate the religion of the people, who are the children of
the State[39]. A clergyman having readily acquiesced in this, Johnson,
who loved discussion, observed, "But, Sir, you must go round to other
States than our own. You do not know what a Bramin has to say for
himself[40]. In short, Sir, I have got no further than this: Every man
has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a
right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test[41]."'
'A man, he observed, should begin to write soon; for, if he waits till
his judgement is matured, his inability, through want of practice to
express his conceptions, will make the disproportion so great between
what he sees, and what he can attain, that he will probably be
discouraged from writing at all[42]. As a proof of the justness of this
remark, we may instance what is related of the great Lord Granville[43];
that after he had written his letter, giving an account of the battle of
Dettingen, he said, "Here is a letter, expressed in terms not good
enough for a tallow-chandler to have used.'"
'Talking of a Court-martial that was sitting upon a very momentous
publick occasion, he expressed much doubt of an enlightened decision;
and said, that perhaps there was not a member of it, who in the whole
course of his life, had ever spent an hour by himself in balancing
probabilities[44].'
'Goldsmith one day brought to the CLUB a printed Ode, which he, with
others, had been hearing read by its authour in a publick room at the
rate of five shillings each for admission[45]. One of the company having
read it aloud, Dr. Johnson said, "Bolder words and more timorous
meaning, I think never were brought together."'
'Talking of Gray's _Odes_, he said, "They are forced plants raised in a
hot-bed[46]; and they are poor plants; they are but cucumbers after
all." A gentleman present, who had been running down Ode-writing in
general, as a bad species of poetry, unluckily said, "Had they been
literally cucumbers, they had been better things than Odes."--"Yes, Sir,
(said Johnson,) for a _hog_."'
'His distinction of the different degrees of attainment of learning was
thus marked upon two occasions. Of Queen Elizabeth he said, "She had
learning enough to have given dignity to a bishop;" and of Mr. Thomas
Davies he said, "Sir, Davies has learning enough to give credit to a
clergyman[47]."'
'He used to quote, with great warmth, the saying of Aristotle recorded
by Diogenes Laertius[48]; that there was the same difference between one
learned and unlearned, as between the living and the dead.'
'It is very remarkable, that he retained in his memory very slight and
trivial, as well as important things[49]. As an instance of this, it
seems that an inferiour domestick of the Duke of Leeds had attempted to
celebrate his Grace's marriage in such homely rhimes as he could make;
and this curious composition having been sung to Dr. Johnson he got it
by heart, and used to repeat it in a very pleasant manner. Two of the
stanzas were these:--
"When the Duke of Leeds shall married be
To a fine young lady of high quality,
How happy will that gentlewoman be
In his Grace of Leeds's good company.
She shall have all that's fine and fair,
And the best of silk and sattin shall wear;
And ride in a coach to take the air,
And have a house in St. James's-square[50]."
To hear a man, of the weight and dignity of Johnson, repeating such
humble attempts at poetry, had a very amusing effect. He, however,
seriously observed of the last stanza repeated by him, that it nearly
comprized all the advantages that wealth can give.'
'An eminent foreigner, when he was shewn the British Museum, was very
troublesome with many absurd inquiries. "Now there, Sir, (said he,) is
the difference between an Englishman and a Frenchman. A Frenchman must
be always talking, whether he knows any thing of the matter or not; an
Englishman is content to say nothing, when he has nothing to say."'
'His unjust contempt for foreigners was, indeed, extreme. One evening,
at old Slaughter's coffee-house[51], when a number of them were talking
loud about little matters, he said, "Does not this confirm old
Meynell's[52] observation--_For any thing I see, foreigners are
fools_[53]."'
'He said, that once, when he had a violent tooth-ach, a Frenchman
accosted him thus:--_Ah, Monsieur vous etudiez trop_[54].'
'Having spent an evening at Mr. Langton's with the Reverend Dr. Parr, he
was much pleased with the conversation of that learned gentleman; and
after he was gone, said to Mr. Langton, "Sir, I am obliged to you for
having asked me this evening. Parr is a fair man. I do not know when I
have had an occasion of such free controversy. It is remarkable how much
of a man's life may pass without meeting with any instance of this kind
of open discussion[55]."'
'We may fairly institute a criticism between Shakspeare and
Corneille[56], as they both had, though in a different degree, the
lights of a latter age. It is not so just between the Greek dramatick
writers and Shakspeare. It may be replied to what is said by one of the
remarkers on Shakspeare, that though Darius's shade[57] had
_prescience_, it does not necessarily follow that he had all _past_
particulars revealed to him.'
'Spanish plays, being wildly and improbably farcical, would please
children here, as children are entertained with stories full of
prodigies; their experience not being sufficient to cause them to be so
readily startled at deviations from the natural course of life[58]. The
machinery of the Pagans is uninteresting to us[59]: when a Goddess
appears in Homer or Virgil, we grow weary; still more so in the Grecian
tragedies, as in that kind of composition a nearer approach to Nature is
intended. Yet there are good reasons for reading romances; as--the
fertility of invention, the beauty of style and expression, the
curiosity of seeing with what kind of performances the age and country
in which they were written was delighted: for it is to be apprehended,
that at the time when very wild improbable tales were well received, the
people were in a barbarous state, and so on the footing of children, as
has been explained.'
'It is evident enough that no one who writes now can use the Pagan
deities and mythology; the only machinery, therefore, seems that of
ministering spirits, the ghosts of the departed, witches[60], and
fairies, though these latter, as the vulgar superstition concerning them
(which, while in its force, infected at least the imagination of those
that had more advantage in education, though their reason set them free
from it,) is every day wearing out, seem likely to be of little further
assistance in the machinery of poetry. As I recollect, Hammond
introduces a hag or witch into one of his love elegies, where the effect
is unmeaning and disgusting[61].'
'The man who uses his talent of ridicule in creating or grossly
exaggerating the instances he gives, who imputes absurdities that did
not happen, or when a man was a little ridiculous describes him as
having been very much so, abuses his talents greatly. The great use of
delineating absurdities is, that we may know how far human folly can go;
the account, therefore, ought of absolute necessity to be faithful. A
certain character (naming the person) as to the general cast of it, is
well described by Garrick, but a great deal of the phraseology he uses
in it, is quite his own, particularly in the proverbial comparisons,
"obstinate as a pig," &c., but I don't know whether it might not be true
of Lord ------[62], that from a too great eagerness of praise and
popularity, and a politeness carried to a ridiculous excess, he was
likely, after asserting a thing in general, to give it up again in
parts. For instance, if he had said Reynolds was the first of painters,
he was capable enough of giving up, as objections might happen to be
severally made, first his outline,--then the grace in form,--then the
colouring,--and lastly, to have owned that he was such a mannerist, that
the disposition of his pictures was all alike.'
'For hospitality, as formerly practised, there is no longer the same
reason; heretofore the poorer people were more numerous, and from want
of commerce, their means of getting a livelihood more difficult;
therefore the supporting them was an act of great benevolence; now that
the poor can find maintenance for themselves, and their labour is
wanted, a general undiscerning hospitality tends to ill, by withdrawing
them from their work to idleness and drunkenness. Then, formerly rents
were received in kind, so that there was a great abundance of provisions
in possession of the owners of the lands, which, since the plenty of
money afforded by commerce, is no longer the case.'
'Hospitality to strangers and foreigners in our country is now almost at
an end, since, from the increase of them that come to us, there have
been a sufficient number of people that have found an interest in
providing inns and proper accommodations, which is in general a more
expedient method for the entertainment of travellers. Where the
travellers and strangers are few, more of that hospitality subsists, as
it has not been worth while to provide places of accommodation. In
Ireland there is still hospitality to strangers, in some degree; in
Hungary and Poland probably more.'