Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) - Boswell
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[769] Mrs. Chapone, when she was Miss Mulso, had written 'four billets
in _The Rambler_, No. 10.' _Ante_, i. 203. She was one of the literary
ladies who sat at Richardson's feet. Wraxall (_Memoirs_, ed. 1815, i.
155) says that 'under one of the most repulsive exteriors that any woman
ever possessed she concealed very superior attainments and extensive
knowledge.' Just as Mrs. Carter was often called 'the learned Mrs.
Carter,' so Mrs. Chapone was known as 'the admirable Mrs. Chapone.'
[770] See _ante_, iii. 373.
[771] A few copies only of this tragedy have been printed, and given to
the authour's friends. BOSWELL.
[772] Dr. Johnson having been very ill when the tragedy was first sent
to him, had declined the consideration of it. BOSWELL.
[773] Johnson refers, I suppose, to a passage in Dryden which he quotes
in his _Dictionary_ under _mechanick_:--'Many a fair precept in poetry
is like a seeming demonstration in mathematicks, very specious in the
diagram, but failing in the mechanick operation.'
[774]
'I could have borne my woes; that stranger Joy
Wounds while it smiles:--The long imprison'd wretch,
Emerging from the night of his damp cell,
Shrinks from the sun's bright beams; and that which flings
Gladness o'er all, to him is agony.' BOSWELL.
[775] Lord Cockburn (_Life of Lord Jeffrey_, i. 74) describing the
representation of Scotland towards the close of last century, and in
fact till the Reform Bill of 1832, says:--'There were probably not above
1500 or 2000 county electors in all Scotland; a body not too large to be
held, hope included, in Government's hand. The election of either the
town or the county member was a matter of such utter indifference to the
people, that they often only knew of it by the ringing of a bell, or by
seeing it mentioned next day in a newspaper.'
[776] Six years later, when he was _Praeses_ of the Quarter-Sessions, he
carried up to London an address to be presented to the Prince of Wales.
'This,' he wrote, 'will add something to my _conspicuousness_. Will that
word do?' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 295.
[777] This part of this letter was written, as Johnson goes on to say, a
considerable time before the conclusion. The Coalition Ministry, which
was suddenly dismissed by the King on Dec. 19, was therefore still in
power. Among Boswell's 'friends' was Burke. See _ante_, p. 223.
[778] On Nov. 22 he wrote to Dr. Taylor:-'I feel the weight of solitude
very pressing; after a night of broken and uncomfortable slumber I rise
to a solitary breakfast, and sit down in the evening with no companion.
Sometimes, however, I try to read more and more.' _Notes and Queries_,
6th S. v. 482. On Dec. 27 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'You have more than
once wondered at my complaint of solitude, when you hear that I am
crowded with visits. _Inopem me copia fecit_. Visitors are no proper
companions in the chamber of sickness. They come when I could sleep or
read, they stay till I am weary.... The amusements and consolations of
langour and depression are conferred by familiar and domestick
companions, which can be visited or called at will.... Such society I
had with Levett and Williams; such I had where I am never likely to have
it more.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 341.
[779] The confusion arising from the sudden dismissal of a Ministry
which commanded a large majority in the House of Commons had been
increased by the resignation, on Dec. 22, of Earl Temple, three days
after his appointment as Secretary of State. _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 238.
[780] 'News I know none,' wrote Horace Walpole on Dec. 30, 1783
(_Letters_, viii. 447), 'but that they are crying Peerages about the
streets in barrows, and can get none off.' Thirty-three peerages were
made in the next three years. (_Whitaker's Almanac_, 1886, p. 463.)
Macaulay tells how this December 'a troop of Lords of the Bedchamber, of
Bishops who wished to be translated, and of Scotch peers who wished to
be reelected made haste to change sides.' Macaulay's _Writings and
Speeches_, ed. 1871, p. 407.
[781] See _ante_, ii. 182. He died Oct. 28, 1788.
[782]'Prince Henry was the first encourager of remote navigation. What
mankind has lost and gained by the genius and designs of this prince it
would be long to compare, and very difficult to estimate. Much knowledge
has been acquired, and much cruelty been committed; the belief of
religion has been very little propagated, and its laws have been
outrageously and enormously violated. The Europeans have scarcely
visited any coast but to gratify avarice, and extend corruption; to
arrogate dominion without right, and practise cruelty without incentive.
Happy had it then been for the oppressed, if the designs of Henry had
slept in his bosom, and surely more happy for the oppressors.' Johnson's
_Works_, v. 219. See _ante_, ii. 478.
[783] 'The author himself,' wrote Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 220), 'is
the best judge of his own performance; no one has so deeply meditated on
the subject; no one is so sincerely interested in the event.'
[784] Mickle, speaking in the third person as the Translator, says:--
'He is happy to be enabled to add Dr. Johnson to the number of those
whose kindness for the man, and good wishes for the Translation, call
for his sincerest gratitude.' Mickle's _Lusiad_, p. ccxxv.
[785] A brief record, it should seem, is given, _ante_, iii. 37.
[786] See _ante_, iii. 106, 214.
[787] The author of _Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr, Johnson_
says (p. 153) that it was Johnson who determined Shaw to undertake this
work. 'Sir,' he said, 'if you give the world a vocabulary of that
language, while the island of Great Britain stands in the Atlantic Ocean
your name will be mentioned.' On p. 156 is a letter by Johnson
introducing Shaw to a friend.
[788] 'Why is not the original deposited in some publick library?' he
asked. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10.
[789] See ante, i. 190.
[790] See Appendix C.
[791] 'Dec. 27, 1873. The wearisome solitude of the long evenings did
indeed suggest to me the convenience of a club in my neighbourhood, but
I have been hindered from attending it by want of breath.' _Piozzi
Letters_, ii. 340. 'Dec. 31. I have much need of entertainment;
spiritless, infirm, sleepless, and solitary, looking back with sorrow
and forward with terrour.' _Ib_, p. 343.
[792] '"I think," said Mr. Cambridge, "it sounds more like some club
that one reads of in _The Spectator_ than like a real club in these
times; for the forfeits of a whole year will not amount to those of a
single night in other clubs."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 290. Mr.
Cambridge was thinking of the Two-penny Club. _Spectator_, No. ix.
[793] I was in Scotland when this Club was founded, and during all the
winter. Johnson, however, declared I should be a member, and invented a
word upon the occasion: 'Boswell (said he) is a very _clubable_ man.'
When I came to town I was proposed by Mr. Barrington, and chosen. I
believe there are few societies where there is better conversation or
more decorum. Several of us resolved to continue it after our great
founder was removed by death. Other members were added; and now, above
eight years since that loss, we go on happily. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker says
'Johnson had already invented _unclubable_ for Sir J. Hawkins,' and
refers to a note by Dr. Burney (_ante_, i. 480, note I), in which
Johnson is represented as saying of Hawkins, while he was still a member
of the Literary Club:--'Sir John, Sir, is a very unclubable man.' But,
as Mr. Croker points out (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 164), 'Hawkins was not
knighted till long after he had left the club.' The anecdote, being
proved to be inaccurate in one point, may be inaccurate in another, and
may therefore belong to a much later date.
[794] See Appendix D.
[795] Ben Jonson wrote _Leges Convivales_ that were 'engraven in marble
over the chimney in the Apollo of the Old Devil Tavern, Temple Bar; that
being his Club Room.' Jonson's _Works_, ed. 1756, vii. 291.
[796] RULES.
'To-day deep thoughts with me resolve to drench
In mirth, which after no repenting draws.'--MILTON.
['To-day deep thoughts _resolve with me_ to drench
In mirth _that_, &c.' _Sonnets_, xxi.]
'The Club shall consist of four-and-twenty.
'The meetings shall be on the Monday, Thursday, and Saturday of every
week; but in the week before Easter there shall be no meeting.
'Every member is at liberty to introduce a friend once a week, but not
oftener.
'Two members shall oblige themselves to attend in their turn every night
from eight to ten, or to procure two to attend in their room.
'Every member present at the Club shall spend at least sixpence; and
every member who stays away shall forfeit three-pence.
'The master of the house shall keep an account of the absent members;
and deliver to the President of the night a list of the
forfeits incurred.
'When any member returns after absence, he shall immediately lay down
his forfeits; which if he omits to do, the President shall require.
'There shall be no general reckoning, but every man shall adjust his own
expences.
'The night of indispensable attendance will come to every member once a
month. Whoever shall for three months together omit to attend himself,
or by substitution, nor shall make any apology in the fourth month,
shall be considered as having abdicated the Club.
'When a vacancy is to be filled, the name of the candidate, and of the
member recommending him, shall stand in the Club-room three nights. On
the fourth he may be chosen by ballot; six members at least being
present, and two-thirds of the ballot being in his favour; or the
majority, should the numbers not be divisible by three.
'The master of the house shall give notice, six days before, to each of
those members whose turn of necessary attendance is come.
'The notice may be in these words:--"Sir, On ---- the ---- of ---- --
will be your turn of presiding at the Essex-Head. Your company is
therefore earnestly requested."
'One penny shall be left by each member for the waiter.'
Johnson's definition of a Club in this sense, in his _Dictionary_, is,
'An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.' BOSWELL.
[797] She had left him in the summer (_ante_, p. 233), but perhaps she
had returned.
[798] He received many acts of kindness from outside friends. On Dec. 31
he wrote:--'I have now in the house pheasant, venison, turkey, and ham,
all unbought. Attention and respect give pleasure, however late or
however useless. But they are not useless when they are late; it is
reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been
spent with the approbation of mankind.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 343.
[799] 'Dec. 16, 1783. I spent the afternoon with Dr. Johnson, who indeed
is very ill, and whom I could hardly tell how to leave. He was very,
very kind. Oh! what a cruel, heavy loss will he be! Dec. 30. I went to
Dr. Johnson, and spent the evening with him. He was very indifferent
indeed. There were some very disagreeable people with him; and he once
affected me very much by turning suddenly to me, and grasping my hand
and saying:--"The blister I have tried for my breath has betrayed some
very bad tokens; but I will not terrify myself by talking of them. Ah!
_priez Dieu pour moi_."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 293, 5. 'I
snatch,' he wrote a few weeks later, 'every lucid interval, and animate
myself with such amusements as the time offers.' _Piozzi Letters_,
ii. 349.
[800] He had written to her on Nov. 10. See Croker's _Boswell_, p. 742.
[801] Hawkins (_Life_, 562) says that this November Johnson said to
him:--'What a man am I, who have got the better of three diseases, the
palsy, the gout, and the asthma, and can now enjoy the conversation of
my friends, without the interruptions of weakness or pain.'
[802] 'The street [on London Bridge], which, before the houses fell to
decay, consisted of handsome lofty edifices, pretty regularly built, was
20 feet broad, and the houses on each side generally 26-1/2 feet deep.'
After 1746 no more leases were granted, and the houses were allowed to
run to ruin. In 1756-7 they were all taken down. Dodsley's _London and
its Environs_, ed. 1761, iv. 136-143.
[803] In Lowndes's _Bibl. Man_. i. 328 is given a list of nearly fifty
of these books. Some of them were reprinted by Stace in 1810-13 in 6
vols. quarto. Dr. Franklin, writing of the books that he bought in his
boyhood says:--'My first acquisition was Bunyan's works in separate
little volumes. I afterwards sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton's
_Historical Collections_; they were small chapmen's books, and cheap.
Forty volumes in all.' Franklin's _Memoirs_, i. 17.
[804] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale this same day:--'Alas, I had no sleep last
night, and sit now panting over my paper. _Dabit Deus his quoque finem.'
['This too the Gods shall end.' MORRIS, Virgil, _Aeneids_, 1.199.]
_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 347.
[805] Boswell's purpose in this _Letter_ was to recommend the Scotch to
address the King to express their satisfaction that the East India
Company Bill had been rejected by the House of Lords. _Ib_. p. 39. 'Let
us,' he writes, 'upon this awful occasion think only of _property_ and
_constitution_;' p. 42. 'Let me add,' he says in concluding, 'that a
dismission of the Portland Administration will probably disappoint an
object which I have most ardently at heart;' p. 42. He was thinking no
doubt of his 'expectations from the interest of an eminent person then
in power' (ante, p. 223.)
[806] On p. 4 Boswell condemns the claim of Parliament to tax the
American colonies as 'unjust and inexpedient.' 'This claim,' he says,
'was almost universally approved of in Scotland, where due consideration
was had of the advantage of raising regiments.' He continues:--'When
pleading at the bar of the House of Commons in a question concerning
taxation, I avowed that opinion, declaring that the man in the world for
whom I have the highest respect (Dr. Johnson) had not been able to
convince me that _Taxation was no Tyranny_.'
[807] Boswell wrote to Reynolds on Feb. 6:--'I intend to be in London
next month, chiefly to attend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful
affection.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 748.
[808] 'I have really hope from spring,' he wrote on Jan. 21, 'and am
ready, like Almanzor, to bid the sun _fly swiftly_, and _leave weeks and
months behind him_. The sun has looked for six thousand years upon the
world to little purpose, if he does not know that a sick man is almost
as impatient as a lover.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 347. Almanzor's speech
is at the end of Dryden's _Conquest of Granada_:--
'Move swiftly, Sun, and fly a lover's pace;
Leave weeks and months behind thee in thy race.'
See _ante_, i. 332, where Johnson said, 'This distinction of seasons is
produced only by imagination operating on luxury. To temperance every
day is bright,' and _post_, Aug. 2, 1784.
[809] He died in the following August at Dover, on his way home.
Walpole's _Letters_, viii. 494. See _ante_, iii. 250, 336, and _post_,
Aug. 19, 1784.
[810] On the last day of the old year he wrote:--'To any man who extends
his thoughts to national consideration, the times are dismal and gloomy.
But to a sick man, what is the publick?' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 344.
The original of the following note is in the admirable collection of
autographs belonging to my friend, Mr. M. M. Holloway:--
'TO THE REV. DR. TAYLOR,
'in Ashbourne,
'Derbyshire.
'DEAR SIR,
'I am still confined to the house, and one of my amusements is to write
letters to my friends, though they, being busy in the common scenes of
life, are not equally diligent in writing to me. Dr. Heberden was with
me two or three days ago, and told me that nothing ailed me, which I was
glad to hear, though I knew it not to be true. My nights are restless,
my breath is difficult, and my lower parts continue tumid.
'The struggle, you see, still continues between the two sets of
ministers: those that are _out_ and _in_ one can scarce call them, for
who is _out_ or _in_ is perhaps four times a day a new question. The
tumult in government is, I believe, excessive, and the efforts of each
party outrageously violent, with very little thought on any national
interest, at a time when we have all the world for our enemies, when the
King and parliament have lost even the titular dominion of America, and
the real power of Government every where else. Thus Empires are broken
down when the profits of administration are so great, that ambition is
satisfied with obtaining them, and he that aspires to greatness needs do
nothing more than talk himself into importance. He has then all the
power which danger and conquest used formerly to give; he can raise a
family and reward his followers.
'Mr. Burke has just sent me his Speech upon the affairs of India, a
volume of above a hundred pages closely printed. I will look into it;
but my thoughts seldom now travel to great distances.
'I would gladly know when you think to come hither, and whether this
year you will come or no. If my life be continued, I know not well how I
shall bestow myself.
'I am, Sir,
'Your affectionate &c.,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'London, Jan. 24, 1784.'
[811] See _post_, v. 48.
[812] See _post_, p. 271.
[813] I sent it to Mr. Pitt, with a letter, in which I thus expressed
myself:--'My principles may appear to you too monarchical: but I know
and am persuaded, they are not inconsistent with the true principles of
liberty. Be this as it may, you, Sir, are now the Prime Minister, called
by the Sovereign to maintain the rights of the Crown, as well as those
of the people, against a violent faction. As such, you are entitled to
the warmest support of every good subject in every department.' He
answered:--'I am extremely obliged to you for the sentiments you do me
the honour to express, and have observed with great pleasure the
_zealous and able support_ given to the CAUSE OF THE PUBLICK in the work
you were so good to transmit to me.' BOSWELL. Five years later, and two
years before _The Life of Johnson_ was published, Boswell wrote to
Temple:--'As to Pitt, he is an insolent fellow, but so able, that upon
the whole I must support him against the _Coalition_; but I will _work_
him, for he has behaved very ill to me. Can he wonder at my wishing for
preferment, when men of the first family and fortune in England struggle
for it?' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 295. Warburton said of Helvetius, whom
he disliked, that, if he had met him, 'he would have _worked_ him.'
Walpole's _Letters_, iv. 217.
[814] Out of this offer, and one of a like nature made in 1779 (_ante_,
iii. 418), Mr. Croker weaves a vast web of ridiculous suspicions.
[815] From his garden at Prestonfield, where he cultivated that plant
with such success, that he was presented with a gold medal by the
Society of London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and
Commerce. BOSWELL.
[816] In the original _effusion_. Johnson's _Works_, vii. 402.
[817] Who had written him a very kind letter. BOSWELL.
[818] On Jan. 12 the Ministry had been in a minority of 39 in a House of
425; on March 8 the minority was reduced to one in a House of 381.
Parliament was dissolved on the 25th. In the first division in the new
Parliament the Ministry were in a majority of 97 in a House of 369.
_Parl. Hist._ xxiv. 299, 744, 829.
[819] See _ante_, p. 241.
[820] 'In old Aberdeen stands the King's College, of which the first
president was Hector Boece, or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced as
one of the revivers of elegant learning.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 11.
[821] See _ante_, iii. 104.
[822] In his dining-room, no doubt, among 'the very respectable people'
whose portraits hung there. _Ante_, p. 203, note.
[823] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 466) wrote on March 30:--'The
nation is intoxicated, and has poured in Addresses of Thanks to the
Crown for exerting the prerogative _against_ the palladium of
the people.'
[824] The election lasted from April 1 to May 16. Fox was returned
second on the poll. _Ann. Reg._ xxvii. 190.
[825] He was returned also for Kirkwall, for which place he sat for
nearly a year, while the scrutiny of the Westminster election was
dragging on. _Parl. Hist_. xxiv. 799.
[826] Hannah More wrote on March 8 (_Memoirs_, i. 310):--'I am sure you
will honour Mr. Langton, when I tell you he is come on purpose to stay
with Dr. Johnson, and that during his illness. He has taken a little
lodging in Fleet-street in order to be near, to devote himself to him.
He has as much goodness as learning, and that is saying a bold thing of
one of the first Greek scholars we have.'
[827] Floyer was the Lichfield physician on whose advice Johnson was
'_touched_' by Queen Anne. _Ante_, i. 42, 91, and _post_, July 20, 1784.
[828] To which Johnson returned this answer:--
'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL OF PORTMORE.
'Dr. Johnson acknowledges with great respect the honour of Lord
Portmore's notice. He is better than he was; and will, as his Lordship
directs, write to Mr. Langton.
'Bolt-court, Fleet-street,
April 13, 1784.'
BOSWELL. Johnson here assumes his title of Doctor, which Boswell says
(_ante_, ii. 332, note 1), so far as he knew, he never did. Perhaps the
letter has been wrongly copied, or perhaps Johnson thought that, in
writing to a man of title, he ought to assume such title as he
himself had.
[829] The eminent painter, representative of the ancient family of
Homfrey (now Humphry) in the west of England; who, as appears from their
arms which they have invariably used, have been, (as I have seen
authenticated by the best authority,) one of those among the Knights and
Esquires of honour who are represented by Holinshed as having issued
from the Tower of London on coursers apparelled for the justes,
accompanied by ladies of honour, leading every one a Knight, with a
chain of gold, passing through the streets of London into Smithfield, on
Sunday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, being the first Sunday after
Michaelmas, in the fourteenth year of King Richard the Second. This
family once enjoyed large possessions, but, like others, have lost them
in the progress of ages. Their blood, however, remains to them well
ascertained; and they may hope in the revolution of events, to recover
that rank in society for which, in modern times, fortune seems to be an
indispensable requisite. BOSWELL.
[830] Son of Mr. Samuel Paterson. BOSWELL. In the first two editions
after 'Paterson' is added 'eminent for his knowledge of books.' See
_ante_, iii. 90.
[831] Humphry, on his first coming to London, poor and unfriended, was
helped by Reynolds. Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 174.
[832] On April 21 he wrote:--'After a confinement of 129 days, more than
the third part of a year, and no inconsiderable part of human life, I
this day returned thanks to God in St. Clement's Church for my
recovery.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 365.
[833] On April 26 he wrote:--'On Saturday I showed myself again to the
living world at the Exhibition; much and splendid was the company, but
like the Doge of Genoa at Paris [Versailles, Voltaire, _Siecle de Louis
XIV_, chap, xiv.], I admired nothing but myself. I went up the stairs to
the pictures without stopping to rest or to breathe,
"In all the madness of superfluous health."
[Pope's _Essay on Man_, iii. 3.] The Prince of Wales had promised to be
there; but when we had waited an hour and a half, sent us word that he
could not come.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 367. 'The first Gentleman in
Europe' was twenty-one years old when he treated men like Johnson and
Reynolds with this insolence. Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 244)
says that it was at this very dinner that 'Johnson left his seat by
desire of the Prince of Wales, and went to the head of the table to be
introduced.' He does not give his authority for the statement.
[834] Mr. Croker wrote in 1847 that he had 'seen it very lately framed
and glazed, in possession of the lady to whom it was addressed.'
Croker's _Boswell_, p. 753.
[835] Shortly before he begged one of Mrs. Thrale's daughters 'never to
think that she had arithmetic enough.' _Ante_, p. 171, note 3. See
_ante_, iii. 207, note 3.
[836] Cowper wrote on May 10 to the Rev. John Newton:--'We rejoice in
the account you give us of Dr. Johnson. His conversion will indeed be a
singular proof of the omnipotence of Grace; and the more singular, the
more decided.' Southey's _Cowper_, xv. 150. Johnson, in a prayer that he
wrote on April 11, said:--'Enable me, O Lord, to glorify Thee for that
knowledge of my corruption, and that sense of Thy wrath, which my
disease and weakness and danger awakened in my mind.' _Pr. and Med._
p. 217.
[837] Mr. Croker suggests _immediate_.
[838] 'The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.'
_St. James_, v. 16.
[839] Upon this subject there is a very fair and judicious remark in the
life of Dr. Abernethy, in the first edition of the _Biographia
Britannica_, which I should have been glad to see in his life which has
been written for the second edition of that valuable work. 'To deny the
exercise of a particular providence in the Deity's government of the
world is certainly impious: yet nothing serves the cause of the scorner
more than an incautious forward zeal in determining the particular
instances of it.'