Life of Johnson Volume IV Part 44

[109] In _Ra.s.selas_ (ch. ii.) we read that the prince's look 'discovered him to receive some solace of the miseries of life, from consciousness of the delicacy with which he felt, and the eloquence with which he bewailed them.' See _ante_, April 8, 1780.

[110] I hope the authority of the great Master of our language will stop that curtailing innovation, by which we see _critic, public_, &c., frequently written instead of _critick, publick_, &c. BOSWELL. Boswell had always been nice in his spelling. In the Preface to his _Corsica_, published twenty-four years before _The Life of Johnson_, he defends his peculiarities, and says:--'If this work should at any future period be reprinted, I hope that care will be taken of my orthography.' Mr. Croker says that in a memorandum in Johnson's writing he has found '_cubic_ feet.'

[111] 'Disorders of intellect,' answered Imlac, 'happen much more often than superficial observers will easily believe. Perhaps, if we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state.'

_Ra.s.selas_, ch. 44.

[112] See _ante_, i. 397, for Kit Smart's madness in praying.

[113] Yet he gave lessons in Latin to Miss Burney and Miss Thrale. Mme.

D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 243. In Skye he said, 'Depend upon it, no woman is the worse for sense and knowledge.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 19.

[114] See _ante_, iii, 240.

[115] Nos. 588, 601, 626 and 635. The first number of the _Spectator_ was written by Addison, the last by Grove. See _ante_, iii. 33, for Johnson's praise of No. 626.

[116] Sterne is of a direct contrary opinion. See his _Sentimental Journey_, Article, 'The Mystery.' BOSWELL. Sterne had been of the same opinion as Johnson, for he says that the beggar he saw 'confounded all kind of reasoning upon him.' 'He pa.s.sed by me,' he continues, 'without asking anything--and yet he did not go five steps farther before he asked charity of a little woman--I was much more likely to have given of the two. He had scarce done with the woman, when he pulled his hat off to another who was coming the same way.--An ancient gentleman came slowly--and, after him, a young smart one--He let them both pa.s.s, and asked nothing; I stood observing him half an hour, in which time he had made a dozen turns backwards and forwards, and found that he invariably pursued the same plan.' _Sentimental Journey_, ed. 1775, ii. 105.

[117] Very likely Dr. Warton. _Ante_, ii. 41.

[118] I differ from Mr. Croker in the explanation of this ill-turned sentence. The _shield_ that Homer may hold up is the observation made by Mrs. Fitzherbert. It was this observation that Johnson respected as a very fine one. For his high opinion of that lady's understanding, see _ante_, i. 83.

[119] In _Boswelliana_ (p. 323) are recorded two more of Langton's Anecdotes. 'Mr. Beauclerk told Dr. Johnson that Dr. James said to him he knew more Greek than Mr. Walmesley. "Sir," said he, "Dr. James did not know enough of Greek to be sensible of his ignorance of the language.

Walmesley did."' See _ante_, i. 81. 'A certain young clergyman used to come about Dr. Johnson. The Doctor said it vexed him to be in his company, his ignorance was so hopeless. "Sir," said Mr. Langton, "his coming about you shows he wishes to help his ignorance." "Sir," said the Doctor, "his ignorance is so great, I am afraid to show him the bottom of it."'

[120] Dr. Francklin. See _ante_, iii. 83, note 3. Churchill attacked him in _The Rosciad_ (Poems, ii. 4). When, he says, it came to the choice of a judge,

'Others for Francklin voted; but 'twas known, He sickened at all triumphs but his own.'

[121] See _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.

[122] _Pr. and Med_. p.190. BOSWELL.

[123] _Ib_. 174. BOSWELL.

[124] 'Mr. Fowke once observed to Dr. Johnson that, in his opinion, the Doctor's literary strength lay in writing biography, in which he infinitely exceeded all his contemporaries. "Sir," said Johnson, "I believe that is true. The dogs don't know how to write trifles with dignity."'--R. Warner's _Original Letters_, p. 204.

[125] His design is thus announced in his _Advertis.e.m.e.nt_: 'The Booksellers having determined to publish a body of English Poetry, I was persuaded to promise them a Preface to the works of each authour; an undertaking, as it was then presented to my mind, not very tedious or difficult.

'My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an Advertis.e.m.e.nt, like that [in original _those_] which we find in the French Miscellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character; but I have been led beyond my intention, I hope by the honest desire of giving useful pleasure.' BOSWELL.

[126] _Inst.i.tutiones_, liber i, Prooemium 3.

[127] 'He had bargained for two hundred guineas, and the booksellers spontaneously added a third hundred; on this occasion Dr. Johnson observed to me, "Sir, I always said the booksellers were a generous set of men. Nor, in the present instance, have I reason to complain. The fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but that I have written too much." The _Lives_ were soon published in a separate edition; when, for a very few corrections, he was presented with another hundred guineas.' Nichols's _Lit. Anec._ viii. 416. See _ante_, iii. 111. In Mr.

Morrison's _Collection of Autographs_ &c., vol. ii, 'is Johnson's receipt for 100_l_., from the proprietors of _The Lives of the Poets_ for revising the last edition of that work.' It is dated Feb. 19, 1783.

'Underneath, in Johnson's autograph, are these words: "It is great impudence to put _Johnson's Poets_ on the back of books which Johnson neither recommended nor revised. He recommended only Blackmore on the Creation, and Watts. How then are they Johnson's? This is indecent."'

The poets whom Johnson recommended were Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden. _Ante_, under Dec. 29, 1778.

[128] Gibbon says of the last five quartos of the six that formed his _History_:--'My first rough ma.n.u.script, without any intermediate copy, has been sent to the press.' _Misc. Works_, i. 255. In the _Memoir of Goldsmith_, prefixed to his _Misc. Works_, i. 113, it is said:--'In whole quires of his _Histories_, _Animated Nature_, &c., he had seldom occasion to correct or alter a single word.' See _ante_, i. 203.

[129] From Waller's _Of Loving at First Sight_. Waller's _Poems, Miscellanies_, x.x.xiv.

[130] He trusted greatly to his memory. If it did not retain anything exactly, he did not think himself bound to look it up. Thus in his criticism on Congreve (_Works_, viii. 31) he says:--'Of his plays I cannot speak distinctly; for since I inspected them many years have pa.s.sed.' In a note on his _Life of Rowe_, Nichols says:--'This _Life_ is a very remarkable instance of the uncommon strength of Dr. Johnson's memory. When I received from him the MS. he complacently observed that the criticism was tolerably well done, considering that he had not read one of Rowe's plays for thirty years.' _Ib_. vii. 417.

[131] Thus:--'In the _Life of Waller_, Mr. Nichols will find a reference to the _Parliamentary History_ from which a long quotation is to be inserted. If Mr. Nichols cannot easily find the book, Mr. Johnson will send it from Streatham.'

'Clarendon is here returned.'

'By some accident, I laid _your_ note upon Duke up so safely, that I cannot find it. Your informations have been of great use to me. I must beg it again; with another list of our authors, for I have laid that with the other. I have sent Stepney's Epitaph. Let me have the revises as soon as can be. Dec. 1778.'

'I have sent Philips, with his Epitaphs, to be inserted. The fragment of a preface is hardly worth the impression, but that we may seem to do something. It may be added to the _Life of Philips_. The Latin page is to be added to the _Life of Smith_. I shall be at home to revise the two sheets of Milton. March 1, 1779.'

'Please to get me the last edition of Hughes's _Letters_; and try to get _Dennis upon Blackmore_, and upon Calo, and any thing of the same writer against Pope. Our materials are defective.'

'As Waller professed to have imitated Fairfax, do you think a few pages of Fairfax would enrich our edition? Few readers have seen it, and it may please them. But it is not necessary.'

'An account of the Lives and works of some of the most eminent English Poets. By, &c.--"The English Poets, biographically and critically considered, by SAM. JOHNSON."--Let Mr. Nichols take his choice, or make another to his mind. May, 1781.'

'You somehow forgot the advertis.e.m.e.nt for the new edition. It was not inclosed. Of Gay's _Letters_ I see not that any use can be made, for they give no information of any thing. That he was a member of the Philosophical Society is something; but surely he could be but a corresponding member. However, not having his life here, I know not how to put it in, and it is of little importance.'

See several more in _The Gent. Mag._, 1785. The Editor of that Miscellany, in which Johnson wrote for several years, seems justly to think that every fragment of so great a man is worthy of being preserved. BOSWELL. In the original MS. in the British Museum, _Your_ in the third paragraph of this note is not in italics. Johnson writes his correspondent's name _Nichols_, _Nichol_, and _Nicol_. In the fourth paragraph he writes, first _Philips_, and next _Phillips_. His spelling was sometimes careless, _ante_, i. 260, note 2. In the _Gent. Mag._ for 1785, p. 10, another of these notes is published:--'In reading Rowe in your edition, which is very impudently called mine, I observed a little piece unnaturally and odiously obscene. I was offended, but was still more offended when I could not find it in Rowe's genuine volumes. To admit it had been wrong; to interpolate it is surely worse. If I had known of such a piece in the whole collection, I should have been angry.

What can be done?' In a note, Mr. Nichols says that this piece 'has not only appeared in the _Works_ of Rowe, but has been transplanted by Pope into the _Miscellanies_ he published in his own name and that of Dean Swift.'

[132] He published, in 1782, a revised edition of Baker's_ Biographia Dramatica_. Baker was a grandson of De Foe. _Gent. Mag._ 1782, p. 77.

[133] Dryden writing of satiric poetry, says:--'Had I time I could enlarge on the beautiful turns of words and thoughts, which are as requisite in this as in heroic poetry itself; of which the satire is undoubtedly a species. With these beautiful turns I confess myself to have been unacquainted, till about twenty years ago, in a conversation which I had with that n.o.ble wit of Scotland, Sir George Mackenzie, he asked me why I did not imitate in my verses the turns of Mr. Waller, and Sir John Denham. ... This hint, thus seasonably given me, first made me sensible of my own wants, and brought me afterwards to seek for the supply of them in other English authors. I looked over the darling of my youth, the famous Cowley.' Dryden's _Works_, ed. 1821, xiii. III.

[134] In one of his letters to Nichols, Johnson says:--'You have now all Cowley. I have been drawn to a great length, but Cowley or Waller never had any critical examination before.' _Gent. Mag._ 1785, p.9.

[135] _Life of Sheffield_. BOSWELL. Johnson's _Works_, vii. 485.

[136] See, however, p.11 of this volume, where the same remark is made and Johnson is there speaking of _prose_. MALONE.

[137]

'Purpureus, late qui splendeat unus et alter a.s.suitur pannus.'

'... Shreds of purple with broad l.u.s.tre shine Sewed on your poem.'

FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poet_. 15.

[138] The original reading is enclosed in crochets, and the present one is printed in Italicks. BOSWELL.

[139] I have noticed a few words which, to our ears, are more uncommon than at least two of the three that Boswell mentions; as, 'Languages divaricate,' _Works_, vii. 309; 'The mellifluence of Pope's numbers,'

_ib._ 337; 'A subject flux and transitory,' _ib._ 389; 'His prose is pure without scrupulosity,' _ib._ 472; 'He received and accommodated the ladies' (said of one serving behind the counter), _ib._ viii. 62; 'The prevalence of this poem was gradual,' _ib._ p. 276; 'His style is sometimes concatenated,' _ib._ p. 458. Boswell, on the next page, supplies one more instance--'Images such as the superficies of nature readily supplies.'

[140] See _ante_, iii. 249.

[141] Veracious is perhaps one of the 'four or five words' which Johnson added, or thought that he added, to the English language. _Ante_, i.

221. He gives it in his _Dictionary_, but without any authority for it.