Life of Johnson Volume II Part 60

After the first fortnight he said to me, "Young man, it would be cheating you to take your money; for you never can learn what I am trying to teach you." I was exceedingly mortified, and cried; for, being a Prime Minister's son, I had firmly believed all the flattery with which I had been a.s.sured that my parts were capable of anything.'

[560] Reynolds said:--'Out of the great number of critics in this metropolis who all pretend to knowledge in pictures, the greater part must be mere pretenders only. Taste does not come by chance; it is a long and laborious task to acquire it.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 264.

[561] 'Jemmy Boswell,' wrote John Scott (afterwards Lord Eldon), 'called upon me, desiring to know what would be my definition of taste. I told him I must decline defining it, because I knew he would publish it. He continued his importunities in frequent calls, and in one complained much that I would not give him it, as he had that morning got Henry Dundas's, Sir A. Macdonald's, and J. Anstruther's definitions. "Well, then," I said, "Boswell, we must have an end of this. Taste, according to my definition, is the judgment which Dundas, Macdonald, Anstruther, and you manifested when you determined to quit Scotland and to come into the south. You may publish this if you please."' Twiss's _Eldon_, i.

303. See _post_, April 10, 1778, note for Lord Eldon.

[562] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 220) says that 'Swift's delight was in simplicity. That he has in his works no metaphor, as has been said, is not true; but his few metaphors seem to be received rather by necessity than choice. He studied purity.... His style was well suited to his thoughts.... He pays no court to the pa.s.sions; he excites neither surprise nor admiration; he always understands himself, and his reader always understands him; the peruser of Swift wants little previous knowledge; it will be sufficient that he is acquainted with common words and common things; ... [his style] instructs, but it does not persuade.'

Hume describes Swift's style as one which he 'can approve, but surely can never admire. It has no harmony, no eloquence, no ornament, and not much correctness, whatever the English may imagine.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 413.

[563] Johnson's Works, v. 146.

[564] Dr. Warton wrote on Jan. 22, 1766:--'Garrick is entirely off from Johnson, and cannot, he says, forgive him his insinuating that he withheld his old editions, which always were open to him; nor, I suppose, his never mentioning him in all his works.' Wooll's _Warton_, p. 313. Beauclerk wrote to Lord Charlemont in 1773:--'If you do not come here, I will bring all the club over to Ireland to live with you, and that will drive you here in your own defence, Johnson _shall spoil your books_, Goldsmith pull your flowers, and Boswell talk to you: stay then if you can.' Charlemont's _Life_, i. 347. Yet Garrick had lent Johnson some books, for Johnson wrote to him on Oct. 10, 1766:--'I return you thanks for the present of the _Dictionary_, and will take care to return you [qu. your] other books.' _Garrick Corres_, i. 245. Steevens, who had edited Johnson's _Shakespeare_, wrote to Garrick:--'I have taken the liberty to introduce your name, because _I have found_ no reason to say that the possessors of the old quartos were not sufficiently communicative.' _Ib_ p. 501. Mme. D'Arblay describes how 'Garrick, giving a thundering stamp on some mark on the carpet that struck his eye--not with pa.s.sion or displeasure, but merely as if from singularity--took off Dr. Johnson's voice in a short dialogue with himself that had pa.s.sed the preceding week. "David! Will you lend me your _Petrarca_?" "Y-e-s, Sir!" "David! you sigh?" "Sir--you shall have it certainly." "Accordingly," Mr. Garrick continued, "the book, stupendously bound, I sent to him that very evening. But scarcely had he taken it in his hands, when, as Boswell tells me, he poured forth a Greek e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n and a couplet or two from Horace, and then in one of those fits of enthusiasm which always seem to require that he should spread his arms aloft, he suddenly pounces my poor _Petrarca_ over his head upon the floor. And then, standing for several minutes lost in abstraction, he forgot probably that he had ever seen it."' Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_, i. 352. See _post_, under Aug. 12, 1784.

[565] The gentleman most likely is Boswell (_ante_, ii. 14, note 1). I suspect that this anecdote belongs to _ante_, April 14, when 'Johnson was not in the most genial humour.' Boswell, while showing that Mrs.

Piozzi misrepresented an incident of that evening 'as a personality,'

would be afraid of weakening his case by letting it be seen that Johnson on that occasion was very personal. Since writing this I have noticed that Dr. T. Campbell records in his _Diary_, p. 53, that on April 1, 1775, he was dining at Mr. Thrale's with Boswell, when many of Johnson's 'bon-mots were retailed. Boswell arguing in favour of a cheerful gla.s.s, adduced the maxim _in vino veritas_. "Well," says Johnson, "and what then, unless a man has lived a lie." Boswell then urged that it made a man forget all his cares. "That to be sure," says Johnson, "might be of use, if a man sat by such a person as you."' Campbell's account confirms what Boswell a.s.serts (_ante_, ii. 188) that Mrs. Piozzi had the anecdote from him.

[566] No. 150. The quotation is from Francis...o...b..rne's _Advice to a Son_. Swift, in _The Tatler_, No. 230, ranks...o...b..rne with some other authors, who 'being men of the Court, and affecting the phrases then in fashion, are often either not to be understood, or appear perfectly ridiculous.'

[567] See post, May 13, 1778, and June 30, 1784.

[568] Mrs. Piozzi, to whom I told this anecdote, has related it, as if the gentleman had given 'the _natural history of the mouse_.' _Anec_. p.

191. BOSWELL. The gentleman was very likely Dr. Vansittart, who is mentioned just before. (See _ante_, i. 348, note 1.) Mrs. Thrale, in 1773, wrote to Johnson of 'the man that saw the mouse.' Piozzi _Letters_, i. 186. From Johnson's answer (_ib_. p. 197) it seems that she meant Vansittart. Mr. Croker says 'this proves that Johnson himself sanctioned Mrs. Piozzi's version of the story--_mouse versus flea_.' Mr.

Croker has an odd notion of what const.i.tutes both a proof and a sanction.

[569] Lord Shelburne says that 'William Murray [Lord Mansfield] was sixteen years of age when he came out of Scotland, and spoke such broad Scotch that he stands entered in the University books at Oxford as born as Bath, the Vice-Chancellor mistaking _Bath for Perth_.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 87.

[570] The asterisks seem to show that Beattie and Robertson are meant.

This is rendered more probable from the fact that the last paragraph is about Scotchmen.

[571] See _ante_, ii. 51.

[572] Boswell's friend was very likely his brother David, who had long resided in Valencia. In that case, Johnson came round to Boswell's opinion, for he wrote, 'he will find Scotland but a sorry place after twelve years' residence in a happier climate;' _post_, April 29, 1780.

[573] See _ante_, i.443, note 2.

[574] Wilson against Smith and Armour. BOSWELL.

[575] Lord Kames, in his _Historical Law Tracts_. BOSWELL.

[576] 'Covin. A deceitful agreement between two or more to the hurt of another.' Johnson's _Dictionary_.

[577] Lord Kames (_Sketches of the History of Man_, iv. 168) says:--'The undisciplined manners of our forefathers in Scotland made a law necessary, that whoever intermeddled irregularly with the goods of a deceased person should be subjected to pay all his debts, however extensive. A due submission to legal authority has in effect abrogated that severe law, and it is now [1774] scarce ever heard of.' Scott introduces Lord Kames in _Redgauntlet_, at the end of chap. I of the _Narrative_:--'"What's the matter with the auld b.i.t.c.h next?" said an acute metaphysical judge, though somewhat coa.r.s.e in his manners, aside to his brethren.' In Boswell's poem _The Court of Session Garland_, where the Scotch judges each give judgment, we read:--

'Alemore the judgment as illegal blames, "Tis equity, you b.i.t.c.h," replies my Lord Kames.'

Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ii. 161. Mr. Chambers adds (p.

171) that when Kames retired from the Bench, 'after addressing his brethren in a solemn speech, in going out at the door of the court room, he turned about, and casting them a last look, cried, in his usual familiar tone, "Fare ye a' weel, ye b.i.t.c.hes."'

[578] At this time there were no civil juries in Scotland. 'But this was made up for, to a certain extent, by the Supreme Court, consisting of no fewer than fifteen judges; who formed a sort of judicial jury, and were dealt with as such. The great ma.s.s of the business was carried on by writing.' c.o.c.kbarn's _Jeffery_, i. 87. See _post_, Jan. 19, 1775, note.

[579] In like manner, he had discovered the _Life of Cheynel_ to be Johnson's. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1774.

[580] The _Essay on Truth_, published in May, 1770. Beattie wrote on Sept. 30, 1772:--'The fourth edition of my _Essay_ is now in the press.'

Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 134. Three translations--French, Dutch, and German--had, it seems, already appeared. _Ib_ p. 121. 'Mr.

Johnson made Goldsmith a comical answer one day, when seeming to repine at the success of Beattie's _Essay on Truth_. "Here's such a stir," said he, "about a fellow that has written one book, and I have written many."

"Ah, Doctor," says he, "there go two and forty sixpences you know to one guinea."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 179. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct 1, 1773.

[581] See _ante_, ii. 144, 183.

[582] On the same day he wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'Your uneasiness at the misfortunes of your relations, I comprehend perhaps too well. It was an irresistible obtrusion of a disagreeable image, which you always wished away, but could not dismiss, an incessant persecution of a troublesome thought, neither to be pacified nor ejected. Such has of late been the state of my own mind. I had formerly great command of my attention, and what I did not like could forbear to think on. But of this power, which is of the highest importance to the tranquillity of life, I have been so much exhausted, that I do not go into a company towards night, in which i foresee anything disagreeable, nor enquire after anything to which I am not indifferent, lest something, which I know to be nothing, should fasten upon my imagination, and hinder me from sleep.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 383. On Oct. 6 he wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'I am now within a few hours of being able to send the whole _Dictionary_ to the press [_ante_, ii. 155], and though I often went sluggishly to the work, I am not much delighted at the completion. My purpose is to come down to Lichfield next week.' _Ib_ p. 422. He stayed some weeks there and in Ashbourne. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 55-70.

[583] See _ante_, ii. 141, note 3.

[584] 'While of myself I yet may think, while breath my body sways.'

Morris's Aeneids, iv. 336.

[585] It should seem that this dictionary work was not unpleasant to Johnson; for Stockdale records (_Memoirs_, ii. 179) that about 1774, having told him that he had declined to edit a new edition of Chambers's _Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences_, 'Johnson replied that if I would not undertake, he would. I expressed my astonishment that, in his easy circ.u.mstances, he should think of preparing a new edition of a tedious, scientific dictionary. "Sir," said he, "I like that muddling work." He allowed some time to go by, during which another editor was found--Dr.

Rees. Immediately after this intelligence he called on me, and his first words were:--"It is gone, Sir."'

[586] He, however, wrote, or partly wrote, an Epitaph on Mrs. Bell, wife of his friend John Bell, Esq., brother of the Reverend Dr. Bell, Prebendary of Westminster, which is printed in his _Works_ [i. 151]. It is in English prose, and has so little of his manner, that I did not believe he had any hand in it, till I was satisfied of the fact by the authority of Mr. Bell. BOSWELL. 'The epitaph is to be seen in the parish church of Watford.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 471.

[587] See _ante_, i. 187. Mme. D'Arblay (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i.

271) says that this year Goldsmith projected a _Dictionary of Arts and Sciences_, in which Johnson was to take the department of ethics, and that Dr. Burney finished the article _Musician_. The scheme came to nothing.

[588] We may doubt Steevens's taste. Garrick 'produced _Hamlet_ with alterations, rescuing,' as he said, 'that n.o.ble play from all the rubbish of the fifth act' (_ante_, ii. 85, note 7.) Steevens wrote to Garrick:--'I expect great pleasure from the perusal of your altered _Hamlet_. It is a circ.u.mstance in favour of the poet which I have long been wishing for. You had better throw what remains of the piece into a farce, to appear immediately afterwards. No foreigner who should happen to be present at the exhibition, would ever believe it was formed out of the loppings and excrescences of the tragedy itself. You may ent.i.tle it _The Grave-Diggers; with the pleasant Humours of Osric, the Danish Macaroni_.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 451.

[589] A line of an epigram in the _Life of Virgil_, ascribed to Donatus.

[590] Given by a lady at Edinburgh. BOSWELL.

[591] There had been masquerades in Scotland; but not for a very long time. BOSWELL. 'Johnson,' as Mr. Croker observes, 'had no doubt seen an account of the masquerade in the _Gent. Mag_. for January,' p. 43. It is stated there that 'it was the first masquerade ever seen in Scotland.'

Boswell appeared as a dumb Conjurer.

[592] Mrs. Thrale recorded in 1776, after her quarrel with Baretti:--'I had occasion to talk of him with Tom Davies, who spoke with horror of his ferocious temper; "and yet," says I, "there is great sensibility about Baretti. I have seen tears often stand in his eyes." "Indeed,"

replies Davies, "I should like to have seen that sight vastly, when--even butchers weep."' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 340. Davies said of Goldsmith:--'He least of all mankind approved Baretti's conversation; he considered him as an insolent, overbearing foreigner.' Davies, in the same pa.s.sage, speaks of Baretti as 'this unhappy Italian.' Davies's _Garrick_, ii. 168. As this was published in Baretti's life-time, the man could scarcely have been so ferocious as he was described.

[593] 'There were but a few days left before the comedy was to be acted, and no name had been found for it. "We are all in labour," says Johnson, whose labour of kindness had been untiring throughout, "for a name to Goldy's play." [See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 14, 1773.] What now stands as the second t.i.tle, _The Mistakes of a Night_, was originally the only one; but it was thought undignified for a comedy. _The Old House a New Inn_ was suggested in place of it, but dismissed as awkward.

Sir Joshua offered a much better name to Goldsmith, saying, "You ought to call it _The Belle's Stratagem_, and if you do not I will d.a.m.n it."

When Goldsmith, in whose ear perhaps a line of Dryden's lingered, hit upon _She Stoops to Conquer_.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 337, and Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 285. Mr. Forster quotes the line of Dryden as

'But kneels to conquer, and but stoops to rise.'

In Lord Chesterfield's _Letters_, iii. 131, the line is given,

'But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise.'

[594] This gentleman, who now resides in America in a publick character of considerable dignity, desired that his name might not be transcribed at full length. BOSWELL.