Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 - Boswell
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[647] Captain Phipps had sailed in May of this year, and in the
neighbourhood of Spitzbergen had reached the latitude of more than 80 deg..
He returned to England in the end of September. _Gent. Mag_. 1774,
p. 420.
[648] _Aeneid_, vi. II.
[649] 'In the afternoon, an interval of calm sunshine courted us out to
see a cave on the shore, famous for its echo. When we went into the
boat, one of our companions was asked in Erse by the boatmen, who they
were that came with him. He gave us characters, I suppose to our
advantage, and was asked, in the spirit of the Highlands, whether I
could recite a long series of ancestors. The boatmen said, as I
perceived afterwards, that they heard the cry of an English ghost. This,
Boswell says, disturbed him.... There was no echo; such is the fidelity
of report.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 156.
[650] '_Law_ or _low_ signifies a hill: _ex. gr._ Wardlaw, guard hill,
Houndslow, the dog's hill.' Blackie's _Etymological Geography_, p. 103.
[651] Pepys often mentions them. At first he praises them highly, but of
one of the later ones--_Tryphon_--he writes:--'The play, though
admirable, yet no pleasure almost in it, because just the very same
design, and words, and sense, and plot, as every one of his plays have,
any one of which would be held admirable, whereas so many of the same
design and fancy do but dull one another.' Pepys's _Diary_, ed. 1851,
v. 63.
[652] The second and third earls are passed over by Johnson. It was the
fourth earl who, as Charles Boyle, had been Bentley's antagonist. Of
this controversy a full account is given in Lord Macaulay's _Life of
Atterbury_.
[653] The fifth earl, John. See _ante_, i. 185, and iii. 249.
[654] See _ante_, i. 9, and iii. 154.
[655] See _ante_, ii. 129, and iii. 183.
[656] The young lord was married on the 8th of May, 1728, and the
father's will is dated the 6th of Nov. following. 'Having,' says the
testator, 'never observed that my son hath showed much taste or
inclination, either for the entertainment or knowledge which study and
learning afford, I give and bequeath all my books and mathematical
instruments [with certain exceptions] to Christchurch College, in
Oxford.' CROKER.
[657] His _Life of Swift_ is written in the form of _Letters to his Son,
the Hon. Hamilton Boyle._ The fifteenth Letter, in which he finishes his
criticism of _Gulliver's Travels_, affords a good instance of this
'studied variety of phrase.' 'I may finish my letter,' he writes,
'especially as the conclusion of it naturally turns my thoughts from
Yahoos to one of the dearest pledges I have upon earth, yourself, to
whom I am a most
Affectionate Father,
'ORRERY.'
See _ante_, i. 275-284, for Johnson's letters to Thomas Warton, many of
which end 'in studied varieties of phrase.'
[658] _The Conquest of Granada_ was dedicated to the Duke of York. The
conclusion is as follows:--'If at any time Almanzor fulfils the parts of
personal valour and of conduct, of a soldier and of a general; or, if I
could yet give him a character more advantageous that what he has, of
the most unshaken friend, the greatest of subjects, and the best of
masters; I should then draw all the world a true resemblance of your
worth and virtues; at least as far as they are capable of being copied
by the mean abilities of,
'Sir,
'Your Royal Highness's
'Most humble, and most
'Obedient servant,
'J. DRYDEN.'
[659] On the day of his coronation he was asked to pardon four young men
who had broken the law against carrying arms. 'So long as I live,' he
replied, 'every criminal must die.' 'He was inexorable in individual
cases; he adhered to his laws with a rigour that amounted to cruelty,
while in the framing of general rules we find him mild, yielding, and
placable.' Ranke's _Popes_, ed. 1866, i. 307, 311.
[660] See _ante_, iii. 239, where he discusses the question of shooting
a highwayman.
[661] In _The Rambler_, No. 78, he says:--'I believe men may be
generally observed to grow less tender as they advance in age.'
[662] He passed over his own _Life of Savage_.
[663] 'When I was a young fellow, I wanted to write the _Life of Dryden'
Ante_, iii. 71.
[664] See _ante_, p. 117.
[665] 'I asked a very learned minister in Sky, who had used all arts to
make me believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he believed
it himself; but he would not answer. He wished me to be deceived for the
honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me.
Yet has this man's testimony been publickly produced, as of one that
held _Fingal_ to be the work of Ossian.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 115.
[666] A young lady had sung to him an Erse song. He asked her, 'What is
that about? I question if she conceived that I did not understand it.
For the entertainment of the company, said she. But, Madam, what is the
meaning of it? It is a love song. This was all the intelligence that I
could obtain; nor have I been able to procure the translation of a
single line of Erse.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 146. See _post_, Oct. 16
[667] This droll quotation, I have since found, was from a song in
honour of the Earl of Essex, called _Queen Elisabeth's Champion_, which
is preserved in a collection of Old Ballads, in three volumes, published
in London in different years, between 1720 and 1730. The full verse is
as follows:--
'Oh! then bespoke the prentices all,
Living in London, both proper and tall,
In a kind letter sent straight to the Queen,
For Essex's sake they would fight all.
Raderer too, tandaro te,
Raderer, tandorer, tan do re.'
BOSWELL.
[668] La Condamine describes a tribe called the Tameos, on the north
side of the river Tiger in South America, who have a word for _three_.
He continues:--'Happily for those who have transactions with them,
their arithmetic goes no farther. The Brazilian tongue, a language
spoken by people less savage, is equally barren; the people who speak
it, where more than three is to be expressed, are obliged to use the
Portuguese.' Pinkerton's _Voyages_, xiv. 225.
[669] 'It was Addison's practice, when he found any man invincibly
wrong, to flatter his opinions by acquiescence, and sink him yet deeper
in absurdity. This artifice of mischief was admired by Stella; and Swift
seems to approve her admiration.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 450. Swift, in
his _Character of Mrs. Johnson _ (Stella), says:--'Whether this
proceeded from her easiness in general, or from her indifference to
persons, or from her despair of mending them, or from the same practice
which she much liked in Mr. Addison, I cannot determine; but when she
saw any of the company very warm in a wrong opinion, she was more
inclined to confirm them in it than oppose them. The excuse she commonly
gave, when her friends asked the reason, was, "That it prevented noise
and saved time." Swift's _Works_, xiv. 254.
[670] In the Appendix to Blair's _Critical Dissertation on the Poems of
Ossian_ Macqueen is mentioned as one of his authorities for his
statements.
[671] See _ante_, iv. 262, note.
[672] I think it but justice to say, that I believe Dr. Johnson meant to
ascribe Mr. M'Queen's conduct to inaccuracy and enthusiasm, and did not
mean any severe imputation against him. BOSWELL.
[673] In Baretti's trial (_ante_, ii. 97, note I) he seems to have given
his evidence clearly. What he had to say, however, was not much.
[674] Boswell had spoken before to Johnson about this omission. _Ante_,
ii. 92.
[675] It has been triumphantly asked, 'Had not the plays of Shakspeare
lain dormant for many years before the appearance of Mr. Garrick? Did he
not exhibit the most excellent of them frequently for thirty years
together, and render them extremely popular by his own inimitable
performance?' He undoubtedly did. But Dr. Johnson's assertion has been
misunderstood. Knowing as well as the objectors what has been just
stated, he must necessarily have meant, that 'Mr. Garrick did not as _a
critick_ make Shakspeare better known; he did not _illustrate_ any one
_passage_ in any of his plays by acuteness of disquisition, or sagacity
of conjecture: and what had been done with any degree of excellence in
_that_ way was the proper and immediate subject of his preface. I may
add in support of this explanation the following anecdote, related to me
by one of the ablest commentators on Shakspeare, who knew much of Dr.
Johnson: 'Now I have quitted the theatre, cries Garrick, I will sit down
and read Shakspeare.' ''Tis time you should, exclaimed Johnson, for I
much doubt if you ever examined one of his plays from the first scene to
the last.' BOSWELL. According to Davies (_Life of Garrick_, i. 120)
during the twenty years' management of Drury Lane by Booth, Wilks and
Cibber (about 1712-1732) not more than eight or nine of Shakspeare's
plays were acted, whereas Garrick annually gave the public seventeen or
eighteen. _Romeo and Juliet_ had lain neglected near 80 years, when in
1748-9 Garrick brought it out, or rather a hash of it. 'Otway had made
some alteration in the catastrophe, which Mr. Garrick greatly improved
by the addition of a scene, which was written with a spirit not unworthy
of Shakespeare himself.' _Ib_. p. 125. Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p.
100), writing of this alteration, says:--'The catastrophe, as it now
stands, is the most affecting in the whole compass of the drama.' Davies
says (p. 20) that shortly before Garrick's time 'a taste for Shakespeare
had been revived. The ladies had formed themselves into a society under
the title of The Shakespeare Club. They bespoke every week some
favourite play of his.' This revival was shown in the increasing number
of readers of Shakespeare. It was in 1741 that Garrick began to act. In
the previous sixteen years there had been published four editions of
Pope's _Shakespeare_ and two of Theobald's. In the next ten years were
published five editions of Hanmer's _Shakespeare_, and two of
Warburton's, besides Johnson's _Observations on Macbeth. _Lowndes's
_Bibl. Man._ ed. 1871, p. 2270.
[676] In her foolish _Essay on Shakespeare_, p. 15. See _ante_, ii. 88.
[677] No man has less inclination to controversy than I have,
particularly with a lady. But as I have claimed, and am conscious of
being entitled to credit for the strictest fidelity, my respect for the
publick obliges me to take notice of an insinuation which tends to
impeach it.
Mrs. Piozzi (late Mrs. Thrale), to her _Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson_, added
the following postscript:--
'_Naples, Feb._ 10, 1786.
'Since the foregoing went to the press, having seen a passage from Mr.
Boswell's _Tour to the Hebrides,_ in which it is said, that _I could not
get through Mrs. Montague's "Essay on Shakspeare,"_ I do not delay a
moment to declare, that, on the contrary, I have always commended it
myself, and heard it commended by every one else; and few things would
give me more concern than to be thought incapable of tasting, or
unwilling to testify my opinion of its excellence.'
It is remarkable that this postscript is so expressed, as not to point
out the person who said that Mrs. Thrale could not get through Mrs.
Montague's book; and therefore I think it necessary to remind Mrs.
Piozzi, that the assertion concerning her was Dr. Johnson's, and not
mine. The second observation that I shall make on this postscript is,
that it does not deny the fact asserted, though I must acknowledge from
the praise it bestows on Mrs. Montague's book, it may have been designed
to convey that meaning.
What Mrs. Thrale's opinion is or was, or what she may or may not have
said to Dr. Johnson concerning Mrs. Montague's book, it is not necessary
for me to enquire. It is only incumbent on me to ascertain what Dr.
Johnson said to me. I shall therefore confine myself to a very short
state of the fact. The unfavourable opinion of Mrs. Montague's book,
which Dr. Johnson, is here reported to have given, is, known to have
been that which he uniformly expressed, as many of his friends well
remember. So much, for the authenticity of the paragraph, as far as it
relates to his own sentiments. The words containing the assertion, to
which Mrs. Piozzi objects, are printed from my manuscript Journal, and
were taken down at the time. The Journal was read by Dr. Johnson, who
pointed out some inaccuracies, which I corrected, but did not mention
any inaccuracy in the paragraph in question: and what is still more
material, and very flattering to me, a considerable part of my Journal,
containing this paragraph, _was read several years ago by, Mrs. Thrale
herself _[see _ante_, ii. 383], who had it for some time in her
possession, and returned it to me, without intimating that Dr. Johnson
had mistaken her sentiments.
When the first edition of my Journal was passing through the press, it
occurred to me that a peculiar delicacy was necessary to be observed in
reporting the opinion of one literary lady concerning the performance of
another; and I had such scruples on that head, that in the proof sheet I
struck out the name of Mrs. Thrale from the above paragraph, and two or
three hundred copies of my book were actually printed and published
without it; of these Sir Joshua Reynolds's copy happened to be one. But
while the sheet was working off, a friend, for whose opinion I have
great respect, suggested that I had no right to deprive Mrs. Thrale of
the high honour which Dr. Johnson had done her, by stating her opinion
along with that of Mr. Beauclerk, as coinciding with, and, as it were,
sanctioning his own. The observation appeared to me so weighty and
conclusive, that I hastened to the printing-house, and, as a piece of
justice, restored Mrs. Thrale to that place from which a too scrupulous
delicacy had excluded her. On this simple state of facts I shall make no
observation whatever. BOSWELL. This note was first published in the form
of a letter to the Editor of _The Gazetteer_ on April 17, 1786.
[678] See _ante_, p. 215, for his knowledge of coining and brewing, and
_post_, p. 263, for his knowledge of threshing and thatching. Now and
then, no doubt, 'he talked ostentatiously,' as he had at Fort George
about Gunpowder (_ante_, p. 124). In the _Gent. Mag._ for 1749, p. 55,
there is a paper on the _Construction of Fireworks_, which I have little
doubt is his. The following passage is certainly Johnsonian:--'The
excellency of a rocket consists in the largeness of the train of fire it
emits, the solemnity of its motion (which should be rather slow at
first, but augmenting as it rises), the straightness of its flight, and
the height to which it ascends.'
[679] Perhaps Johnson refers to Stephen Hales's _Statical Essays_
(London, 1733), in which is an account of experiments made on the blood
and blood-vessels of animals.
[680] Evidence was given at the Tichborne Trial to shew that it takes
some years to learn the trade.
[681] Not the very tavern, which was burned down in the great fire. P.
CUNNINGHAM.
[682] I do not see why I might not have been of this club without
lessening my character. But Dr. Johnson's caution against supposing
one's self concealed in London, may be very useful to prevent some
people from doing many things, not only foolish, but criminal. BOSWELL.
[683] See _ante_, iii. 318.
[684] Johnson defines _airy_ as _gay, sprightly, full of mirth_, &c.
[685] 'A man would be drowned by claret before it made him drunk.'
_Ante_, iii. 381.
[686] _Ante_, p. 137.
[687] See _ante_ ii. 261.
[688] Lord Chesterfield wrote in 1747 (_Misc. Works_, iv. 231):--
Drinking is a most beastly vice in every country, but it is really a
ruinous one to Ireland; nine gentlemen in ten in Ireland are
impoverished by the great quantity of claret, which from mistaken
notions of hospitality and dignity, they think it necessary should be
drunk in their houses. This expense leaves them no room to improve their
estates by proper indulgence upon proper conditions to their tenants,
who must pay them to the full, and upon the very day, that they may pay
their wine-merchants.' In 1754 he wrote (_ib._p.359):--If it would but
please God by his lightning to blast all the vines in the world, and by
his thunder to turn all the wines now in Ireland sour, as I most
sincerely wish he would, Ireland would enjoy a degree of quiet and
plenty that it has never yet known.'
[689] See _ante_, p. 95.
[690] 'The sea being broken by the multitude of islands does not roar
with so much noise, nor beat the storm with such foamy violence as I
have remarked on the coast of Sussex. Though, while I was in the
Hebrides, the wind was extremely turbulent, I never saw very high
billows.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 65.
[691] Johnson this day thus wrote of Mr. M'Queen to Mrs. Thrale:--'You
find that all the islanders even in these recesses of life are not
barbarous. One of the ministers who has adhered to us almost all the
time is an excellent scholar.' _Piozzi Letters,_ i. 157.
[692] See _post_, Nov. 6.
[693] This was a dexterous mode of description, for the purpose of his
argument; for what he alluded to was, a Sermon published by the learned
Dr. William Wishart, formerly principal of the college at Edinburgh, to
warn men _against_ confiding in a death-bed _repentance_ of the
inefficacy of which he entertained notions very different from those of
Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL.
[694] The Rev. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 441) thus writes of the
English clergy whom he met at Harrogate in 1763:--'I had never seen so
many of them together before, and between this and the following year I
was able to form a true judgment of them. They are, in general--I mean
the lower order--divided into bucks and prigs; of which the first,
though inconceivably ignorant, and sometimes indecent in their morals,
yet I held them to be most tolerable, because they were unassuming, and
had no other affectation but that of behaving themselves like gentlemen.
The other division of them, the prigs, are truly not to be endured, for
they are but half learned, are ignorant of the world, narrow-minded,
pedantic, and overbearing. And now and then you meet with a _rara avis_
who is accomplished and agreeable, a man of the world without
licentiousness, of learning without pedantry, and pious without
sanctimony; but this _is_ a _rara avis_'.
[695] See _ante_, i. 446, note 1.
[696] Johnson defines _manage_ in this sense _to train a horse to
graceful action_, and quotes Young:--
'They vault from hunters to the managed steed.'
[697] Of Sir William Forbes of a later generation, Lockhart (_Life of
Scott_, ix. 179) writes as follows:--'Sir William Forbes, whose
banking-house was one of Messrs. Ballantyne's chief creditors, crowned
his generous efforts for Scott's relief by privately paying the whole of
Abud's demand (nearly L2000) out of his own pocket.'
[698] This scarcity of cash still exists on the islands, in several of
which five shilling notes are necessarily issued to have some
circulating medium. If you insist on having change, you must purchase
something at a shop. WALTER SCOTT.
[699] 'The payment of rent in kind has been so long disused in England
that it is totally forgotten. It was practised very lately in the
Hebrides, and probably still continues, not only in St. Kilda, where
money is not yet known, but in others of the smaller and remoter
islands.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 110.
[700] 'A place where the imagination is more amused cannot easily be
found. The mountains about it are of great height, with waterfalls
succeeding one another so fast, that as one ceases to be heard another
begins.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 157.
[701] See _ante_, i. 159.
[702] Johnson seems to be speaking of Hailes's _Memorials and Letters
relating to the History of Britain in the reign of James I and of
Charles I_.
[703] See _ante_, ii. 341.
[704] See _ante_, iii. 91.
[705] 'In all ages of the world priests have been enemies to liberty,
and it is certain that this steady conduct of theirs must have been
founded on fixed reasons of interest and ambition. Liberty of thinking
and of expressing our thoughts is always fatal to priestly power, and to
those pious frauds on which it is commonly founded.... Hence it must
happen in such a government as that of Britain, that the established
clergy, while things are in their natural situation, will always be of
the _Court_-party; as, on the contrary, dissenters of all kinds will be
of the _Country_-party.' Hume's _Essays_, Part 1, No. viii.
[706] In the original _Every island's but a prison._ The song is by a
Mr. Coffey, and is given in Ritson's _English Songs_ (1813), ii. 122.
It begins:--
'Welcome, welcome, brother debtor,
To this poor but merry place,
Where no bailiff, dun, nor setter,
Dares to show his frightful face.'
See _ante_, iii. 269.
[707] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale the day before (perhaps it was this day,
and the copyist blundered):--' I am still in Sky. Do you remember
the song--
We have at one time no boat, and at another may have too much wind; but
of our reception here we have no reason to complain.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 143.
[708] My ingenuously relating this occasional instance of intemperance
has I find been made the subject both of serious criticism and ludicrous
banter. With the banterers I shall not trouble myself, but I wonder that
those who pretend to the appellation of serious criticks should not have
had sagacity enough to perceive that here, as in every other part of the
present work, my principal object was to delineate Dr. Johnson's manners
and character. In justice to him I would not omit an anecdote, which,
though in some degree to my own disadvantage, exhibits in so strong a
light the indulgence and good humour with which he could treat those
excesses in his friends, of which he highly disapproved.
In some other instances, the criticks have been equally wrong as to the
true motive of my recording particulars, the objections to which I saw
as clearly as they. But it would be an endless task for an authour to
point out upon every occasion the precise object he has in view,
Contenting himself with the approbation of readers of discernment and
taste, he ought not to complain that some are found who cannot or will
not understand him. BOSWELL.
[709] In the original, 'wherein is excess.'
[710] See Chappell's _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, i. 231.
[711] See _ante_, iii. 383.
[712] see _ante_, p. 184.
[713] See _ante_, ii. 120, where he took upon his knee a young woman who
came to consult him on the subject of Methodism.
[714] See _ante_, pp. 215, 246.
[715] See _ante_, iv. 176.
[716]
'If ev'ry wheel of that unwearied mill
That turned ten thousand verses now stands still.'
_Imitations of Horace, 2 Epis._ ii. 78.
[717] _Ante_, p. 206.
[718]
'Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine captos
Ducit.'--Ovid, _Ex Pont_. i. 3. 35.
[719] Lift up your hearts.
[720] Mr. Croker prints the following letter written to Macleod the day
before:--
'Ostig, 28th Sept. 1773.
'DEAR SIR,--We are now on the margin of the sea, waiting for a boat and
a wind. Boswell grows impatient; but the kind treatment which I find
wherever I go, makes me leave, with some heaviness of heart, an island
which I am not very likely to see again. Having now gone as far as
horses can carry us, we thankfully return them. My steed will, I hope,
be received with kindness;--he has borne me, heavy as I am, over ground
both rough and steep, with great fidelity; and for the use of him, as
for your other favours, I hope you will believe me thankful, and
willing, at whatever distance we may be placed, to shew my sense of your
kindness, by any offices of friendship that may fall within my power.
'Lady Macleod and the young ladies have, by their hospitality and
politeness, made an impression on my mind, which will not easily be
effaced. Be pleased to tell them, that I remember them with great
tenderness, and great respect.--I am, Sir, your most obliged and most
humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'P.S.--We passed two days at Talisker very happily, both by the
pleasantness of the place and elegance of our reception.'
[721] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 409), after describing how Shenstone laid
out the Leasowes, continues:--'Whether to plant a walk in undulating
curves, and to place a bench at every turn where there is an object to
catch the view; to make water run where it will be heard, and to
stagnate where it will be seen; to leave intervals where the eye will be
pleased, and to thicken the plantation where there is something to be
hidden, demands any great powers of mind, I will not inquire: perhaps a
surly and sullen speculator may think such performances rather the sport
than the business of human reason.'
[722] Johnson quotes this and the two preceding stanzas as 'a passage,
to which if any mind denies its sympathy, it has no acquaintance with
love or nature.' _Ib_. p. 413.
[723] 'His mind was not very comprehensive, nor his curiosity active; he
had no value for those parts of knowledge which he had not himself
cultivated.' _Ib._ p. 411.