Life of Johnson Volume III Part 47

"Ah!" said Johnson, "that may be true; for the limbs will quiver and move when the soul is gone."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 152. Farmer was Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge (_ante_, i. 368). In a letter dated Oct. 3, 1786, published in Romilly's _Life_ (i. 332), it is said:--'Shakespeare and black letter muster strong at Emanuel.'

[117] 'When Johnson once glanced at this _Liberal Translation of the New Testament_, and saw how Dr. Harwood had turned _Jesus wept_ into _Jesus, the Saviour of the world, burst into a flood of tears_, he contemptuously threw the book aside, exclaiming, "Puppy!" The author, Dr. Edward Harwood, is not to be confounded with Dr. Thomas Harwood, the historian of Lichfield.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 836.

[118] See an ingenious Essay on this subject by the late Dr. Moor, Greek Professor at Glasgow. BOSWELL.

[119] See _ante_, i. 6, note 2.

[120] 'Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!' _Job_ xix. 23.

[121] 'The gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction, and the circ.u.mstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully natural, that, though it will perhaps not be said of him as he says of himself, that he is "a man not easily jealous," yet we cannot but pity him, when at last we find him "perplexed in the extreme."' Johnson's _Works_, v. 178.

[122] Of Dennis's criticism of Addison's _Cato_, he says:--'He found and shewed many faults; he shewed them indeed with anger, but he found them with acuteness, such as ought to rescue his criticism from oblivion.'

_Ib_. vii. 457. In a note on 'thunder rumbling from the mustard-bowl'

(The _Dunciad_, ii. 226) it is said:--'Whether Mr. Dennis was the inventor of that improvement, I know not; but is certain that, being once at a tragedy of a new author, he fell into a great pa.s.sion at hearing some, and cried, "S'death! that is _my_ thunder."' See D'Israeli's _Calamities of Authors_, i. 135, for an amplification of this story.

[123] Sir James Mackintosh thought c.u.mberland was meant. I am now satisfied that it was Arthur Murphy. CROKER. The fact that Murphy's name is found close to the story renders it more likely that Mr. Croker is right.

[124] 'Obscenity and impiety,' Johnson boasted in the last year of his life, 'have always been repressed in my company.' _Post_, June 11, 1784.

See also _post_, Sept. 22, 1777.

[125] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 18.

[126] See _ib_. Aug. 15.

[127] See _post_, April 28, 29, 1778.

[128] See _ante_, Jan. 21, 1775, note.

[129] See _post_, April 28, 1778. That he did not always scorn to drink when in company is shewn by what he said on April 7, 1778:--'I have drunk three bottles of port without being the worse for it. University College has witnessed this.'

[130] _Copy_ is _ma.n.u.script for printing_.

[131] In _The Rambler_, No. 134, he describes how he had sat deliberating on the subject for that day's paper, 'till at last I was awakened from this dream of study by a summons from the press; the time was now come for which I had been thus negligently purposing to provide, and, however dubious or sluggish, I was now necessitated to write. To a writer whose design is so comprehensive and miscellaneous that he may accommodate himself with a topick from every scene of life, or view of nature, it is no great aggravation of his task to be obliged to a sudden composition.' See _ante_, i. 203.

[132] See _ante_, i. 428.

[133] We have here an involuntary testimony to the excellence of this admirable writer, to whom we have seen that Dr. Johnson _directly_ allowed so little merit. BOSWELL. 'Fielding's Amelia was the most pleasing heroine of all the romances,' he said; 'but that vile broken nose never cured [_Amelia_, bk. ii. ch. 1] ruined the sale of perhaps the only book, which being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 221. Mrs.

Carter, soon after the publication of _Amelia_, wrote (_Corres_. ii.

71):--'Methinks I long to engage you on the side of this poor unfortunate book, which I am told the fine folks are unanimous in p.r.o.nouncing to be very sad stuff.' See _ante_, ii. 49.

[134] Horace Walpole wrote, on Dec, 21, 1775 (_Letters_, vi. 298):-- 'Mr. c.u.mberland has written an _Ode_, as he modestly calls it, in praise of Gray's _Odes_; charitably no doubt to make the latter taken notice of. Garrick read it the other night at Mr. Beauclerk's, who comprehended so little what it was about, that he desired Garrick to read it backwards, and try if it would not be equally good; he did, and it was.' It was to this reading backwards that Dean Barnard alludes in his verses--

'The art of pleasing, teach me, Garrick; Thou who reversest odes Pindaric, A second time read o'er.'

See _post_, under May 8, 1781.

[135] Mr. Romney, the painter, who has now deservedly established a high reputation. BOSWELL. c.u.mberland (_Memoirs_, i. 384) dedicated his _Odes_ to him, shortly after 'he had returned from pursuing his studies at Rome.' 'A curious work might be written,' says Mr. Croker, 'on the reputation of painters. Hayley dedicated his lyre (such as it was) to Romney. What is a picture of Romney now worth?' The wheel is come full circle, and Mr. Croker's note is as curious as the work that he suggests.

[136] Page 32 of this vol. BOSWELL.

[137] Thurlow.

[138] Wedderburne. Boswell wrote to Temple on May 1:--'Luckily Dr.

Taylor has begged of Dr. Johnson to come to London, to a.s.sist him in some interesting business, and Johnson loves much to be so consulted and so comes up.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 234. On the 14th Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Mr. Wedderburne has given his opinion today directly against us. He thinks of the claim much as I think.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 323. In _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 423, in a letter from Johnson to Taylor, this business is mentioned.

[139] Goldsmith wrote in 1762:--'Upon a stranger's arrival at Bath he is welcomed by a peal of the Abbey bells, and in the next place by the voice and music of the city waits.' Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 57. In _Humphry Clinker_ (published in 1771), in the Letter of April 24, we read that there was 'a peal of the Abbey bells for the honour of Mr. Bullock, an eminent cow-keeper of Tottenham, who had just arrived at Bath to drink the waters for indigestion.' The town waits are also mentioned. The season was not far from its close when Boswell arrived.

Melford, in _Humphry Clinker_, wrote from Bath on May 17:--'The music and entertainments of Bath are over for this season; and all our gay birds of pa.s.sage have taken their flight to Bristol-well [Clifton], Tunbridge, Brighthelmstone, Scarborough, Harrowgate, &c. Not a soul is seen in this place, but a few broken-winded parsons, waddling like so many crows along the North Parade.' Boswell had soon to return to London 'to eat commons in the Inner Temple.' Delighted with Bath, and apparently pleasing himself with the thought of a brilliant career at the Bar, he wrote to Temple, 'Quin said, "Bath was the cradle of age, and a fine slope to the grave." Were I a Baron of the Exchequer and you a Dean, how well could we pa.s.s some time there!' _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 231, 234.

[140] To the rooms! and their only son dead three days over one month!

'That it should come to this!

But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two.'

_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2.

[141] No doubt Mr. Burke. See _ante_, April 15, 1773, and under Oct. 1, 1774, note, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 15.

[142] Mr. E.J. Payne, criticising this pa.s.sage, says:--'It is certain that Burke never thought he was deserting any principle of his own in joining the Rockinghams.' Payne's _Burke_, i. xvii.

[143] No doubt Mrs. Macaulay. See _ante_, i. 447. 'Being asked whether he had read Mrs. Macaulay's second volume of the _History of England_, "No, Sir," says he, "nor her first neither."' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 205.

[144] 'Of this distinguished Epilogue the reputed author was the wretched Budgel, whom Addison used to denominate "the man who calls me cousin" [Spence's _Anecdotes_, ed. 1820, p. 161]; and when he was asked how such a silly fellow could write so well, replied, "The Epilogue was quite another thing when I saw it first." [_Ib_. p. 257.] It was known in Tonson's family, and told to Garrick, that Addison was himself the author of it, and that, when it had been at first printed with his name, he came early in the morning, before the copies were distributed, and ordered it to be given to Budgel, that it might add weight to the solicitation which he was then making for a place.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 389. See _ante_, i. 181.

[145] See _post_, Jan. 20, 1782.

[146] On May 10, 1768, on which day the new parliament met, a great body of people gathered round the King's Bench prison in St. George's Fields in expectation that Wilkes would go thence to the House of Commons. Some kind of a riot arose, a proclamation was made in the terms of the Riot-Act, and the soldiers firing by order of Justice Gillam, killed five or six on the spot. The justice and one of the soldiers were on the coroner's inquest brought in guilty of wilful murder, and two other soldiers of aiding and abetting therein. With great difficulty the prisoners were saved from the rage of the populace. They were all acquitted however. At Gillam's trial the judge ruled in his favour, so that the case did not go to the jury. Of the trial of one of the soldiers 'no account was allowed to be published by authority.' _Ann.

Reg_. 1768, pp. 108-9, 112, 136-8, 233. Professor Dicey (_Law of the Const.i.tution_, p. 308) points out that 'the position of a soldier may be both in theory and practice, a difficult one. He may, as it has been well said, be liable to be shot by a court-martial if he disobeys an order, and to be hanged by a judge and jury if he obeys it.' The remembrance of these cases was perhaps the cause of the feebleness shewn in the Gordon Riots in June 1780. Dr. Franklin wrote from London on May 14, 1768 (_Memoirs_, iii. 315):--'Even this capital is now a daily scene of lawless riot. Mobs patrolling the streets at noon-day, some knocking all down that will not roar for Wilkes and liberty; courts of justice afraid to give judgment against him; coal-heavers and porters pulling down the houses of coal-merchants that refuse to give them more wages; sawyers destroying saw-mills; sailors unrigging all the outward-bound ships, and suffering none to sail till merchants agree to raise their pay; watermen destroying private boats, and threatening bridges; soldiers firing among the mobs and killing men, women, and children.'

'While I am writing,' he adds (_ib_. p. 316), 'a great mob of coal-porters fill the street, carrying a wretch of their business upon poles to be ducked for working at the old wages.' See also _ib_. p. 402.

Hume agreed with Johnson about the 'imbecility' of the government; but he drew from it different conclusions. He wrote on Oct. 27, 1775, about the addresses to the King:--'I wish they would advise him first to punish those insolent rascals in London and Middles.e.x, who daily insult him and the whole legislature, before he thinks of America. Ask him, how he can expect that a form of government will maintain an authority at 3000 miles' distance, when it cannot make itself be respected, or even be treated with common decency, at home.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii.

479. On the 30th of this month of April--four days after the conversation in the text--John Home recorded:--'Mr. Hume cannot give any reason for the incapacity and want of genius, civil and military, which marks this period.' _Ib_. p. 503.

[147] See _Dr. Johnson, His Friends, &c_., p. 252.

[148] It was published in 1743.

[149] I am sorry that there are no memoirs of the Reverend Robert Blair, the author of this poem. He was the representative of the ancient family of Blair, of Blair, in Ayrshire, but the estate had descended to a female, and afterwards pa.s.sed to the son of her husband by another marriage. He was minister of the parish of Athelstanford, where Mr. John Home was his successor; so that it may truely be called cla.s.sick ground.

His son, who is of the same name, and a man eminent for talents and learning, is now, with universal approbation, Solicitor-General of Scotland. BOSWELL. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 94) describes Blair 'as so austere and void of urbanity as to make him quite disagreeable to young people.'

[150] In 1775 Mrs. Montagu gave Mrs. Williams a small annuity. Croker's _Boswell_, pp. 458, 739. Miss Burney wrote of her:--'Allowing a little for parade and ostentation, which her power in wealth and rank in literature offer some excuse for, her conversation is very agreeable.'

Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 325. See _post_, April 7, 1778, note.

[151]

'Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.'

Pope, _Sat. Ep_. i. 135.

[152] Johnson refers to Jenyns's _View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion_, published this spring. See _post_, April 15, 1778.

Jenyns had changed his view, for in his _Origin of Evil_ he said, in a pa.s.sage quoted with applause by Johnson (_Works_, vi. 69), that 'it is observable that he who best knows our formation has trusted no one thing of importance to our reason or virtue; he trusts to our vanity or compa.s.sion for our bounty to others.'